136 PASSERES. 



116. EMBERIZA PERSONATA. 



(TEMMINCK'S JAPANESE BUNTING.) 



Emberiza personata, Temminck, Planclies Colorizes, no. 580 (1835). 



Temminck^s Japanese Bunting eom'biues two characters, mantle 

 russet-brown streaked with dark brown, and throat and breast yellow, 

 streaked with brown in the female, which no other Japanese Buntings 

 possess, except the females of Emberiza spodocephala and E. sul- 

 phurata. The latter has an unstreaked yellow chin, throat, and 

 breast. The male of E. personata has a black chin, and the female 

 a streaked breast. 



Figures : Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 59 b. 



Temminck^s Japanese Bunting is peculiar to the Japanese Islands. 

 It has been recorded from Eturop, the most southerly of the Kurile 

 Islands (Blakiston and Pryer, Trans. As. Soc. Jap. 1882, p. 170). It 

 is a summer visitor to Yezzo, and a few remain in that island during 

 winter. In the more southerly Japanese Islands it is a resident. 

 There is an example from Hakodadi collected by Captain Blakiston 

 in the Swinhoe collection (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1874, p. 161) ; and I have 

 two others from the same locality collected by Mr. Henson. There 

 are eight examples from Yokohama in the Pryer collection, and I 

 have three examples from Nagasaki collected by Mr. Ringer. It 

 was observed in abundance by the officers of the Perry Expedition at 

 Simoda (Cassin, Exp. Am. Squad. China Seas and Japan, ii. p. 221) ; 

 and it is the only Bunting recorded from the Loo-Choo Islands 

 (Seebohm, Ibis, 1887, p. 174). It breeds abundantly on Fuji-yama. 

 The nest is placed on the ground or in a tussock of grass, and is made 

 of dried grass, lined with fine roots and horsehair ( Jouy, Proc. United 

 States Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 298). Eggs in the Pryer collection 

 resemble richly marked examples of those of the Ortolan Bunting. 



Temminck's Japanese Bunting is an island form of the Black- 

 faced Bunting, Emberiza spodocephala, and is possibly only sub- 

 specifically distinct from it. The adult male differs from that of its 

 continental ally in having the lower throat and breast yellow instead 

 of olive-grey. The female only differs from that of the continental 

 species in having rather less white on the outer tail-feathers, but this 

 is a somewhat variable character. Some of the intermediate forms 

 from China have been referred to a continental race of E. personata 

 (Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xii. p. 522). 



