EMBERIZA FUCATA, Pali. 



Painted Bunting*. 



Emberiza fucata, Pall. Itin. App., no. 22. — Id. Zoog. Ross. -Asiat., torn. ii. p. 41, pi. 46.— Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. 

 Nat., torn. i. p. 871.— Lath. Ind. Orn./vol. i. p. 419.— Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. ix. p. 385.— Blyth, Journ. 

 Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xi. p. 601, vol. xiii. p. 957 ? — Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 377, Emberiza, sp. 7. 

 — Sieb. Temm. et Schleg. Faun. Jap., p. 96, tab. lvii. — Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. i. p. 464, Emberiza, 

 sp. 3.— Jerd. Birds of India, vol. ii. part i. p. 375 ?— Blak. Ibis, 1862, p. 328.— Swinh. Ibis, 1860, p. 61, 

 1861, pp. 45, 334, 1863, p. 378 ; Proc. of Zool. Soc., 1863, pp. 301, 337.— Whitely, Ibis, 1867, p. 202. 

 —v. Pelz. Ibis, 1868, p. 318. 



lesbia, Gould, Birds of Eur., vol. hi. pi. 178.— Temm. Man. d'Orn., 2nd edit. torn. hi. p, 235. 



cia, Jerd. Cat. 



— provincialis, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 881 ? 



Durazzi, Bonap. Faun. Ital., torn. i. pi. 35, fig, 2 ? 



Le Gavone de Provence, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois., torn. iv. p. 321 ?— Id. PL Enl. 656. fig. L? 



Coloured Bunting, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., ii. p. 202. — Id. Gen. Hist., vol. v. p. 332. 



Euspiza fucata, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 129? — Id. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. 



xxiii. p. 215 ? — Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in Mus. East-Ind. Comp., vol. ii. p. 488 ? 

 Onycho spina fucata, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de 1'Acad. Sci., 1853, p. 

 Hypocentor fucatus, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 131, note. 



The figures in the accompanying Plate were taken from Japanese and Chinese specimens — that of the male 

 from an example killed at Hakodadi by Mr. Henry Whitely, and that of the female from a specimen collected 

 near Canton. I mention this particularly, because I find that Japanese and Indian examples differ consi- 

 derably both in size and colour; unfortunately I have not a sufficient number of Indian birds at my command 

 to determine with certainty whether they constitute two species, or if they must be regarded as mere local 

 varieties ; I strongly suspect, however, that the Indian bird, which is the smallest in size, and has the 

 rufous colouring of the under surface of a deeper tint and more widely spread, has yet to receive a specific 

 appellation, unless it should prove to be identical with Gmelin's Emberiza provincialis. The European bird 

 so called certainly assimilates to Indian rather than to Chinese examples ; I have therefore placed a mark of 

 doubt against all those synonyms having reference to European and Indian birds. Siebold, Temminck, and 

 Schlegel have given a good figure of this bird in their ' Fauna Japonica,' wherein, after mentioning that 

 Pallas's bird was from Dauuria, they say — "the Dutch voyagers found it in Japan, and sent thence nume- 

 rous examples to the Museum of the Netherlands ; and it is from them that the description of Emberiza 

 lesbia, given in the third volume of Temminck's ' Manual of Ornithology,' and the figure which Mr. Gould 

 has published, under the same name, in the third volume of his ' Birds of Europe,' were taken. It has been 

 said that some specimens of this Bunting have been observed in the South of France and in Italy; but the 

 descriptions and figures given of them are not sufficiently accurate to prove their identity with the painted 

 Bunting of Eastern Asia. 



"This species, which is one of the most curious of its genus, is distinguished from all the others bv the 

 length of the tertiaries, which cover the primaries throughout nearly their whole length, and by the claw of 

 the hind toe being a little longer and less curved than ordinary, which latter circumstance, recalling to our 

 minds the Larks, Pipits, Wagtails, and other birds which mostly frequent the ground, leads one to suppose 

 that this Bunting differs in its mode of life from all the other members of the genus, which, as is well known, 

 gives the preference to trees. Pallas, indeed, says that it inhabits the islets and meadows of Dauuria ; and to 

 this limited information his notice of the habits of the bird is confined." 



Whether the Indian bird be the same or not, I think it well to append Mr. Jerdon's account of those seen 

 there by him :■ — ■" This Bunting appears to spread sparingly through Northern and Central India in the cold 

 weather. It has been found in Bengal, near Calcutta occasionally, in some seasons occurring rather plentifully, 

 also in Nepaul and the Dehra Dhoon, and is not uncommon about Simla and Mussooree. I have seen it at Jalna, 

 in the Deccan, at Mhow and at Sangor, and also near Nagpore. In most of these places it was frequentino- 

 rocky and bushy hills in small parties ; and I occasionally saw it in the fields, near hedges and trees. Its 

 Hindustani name, which means stone-grazer, is given to it from its being seen so much about rocks and 

 stones. 



" In some specimens the pectoral band is more or less imperfect, consisting chiefly of spots ; and the sides 

 of the abdomen are streaked with brown. In the cold weather the majority want the mesial streak on the 



