EMBERIZA RUSTICA, Pali 



Rustic Bunting-* 



Emberiza rustica, Pall. Itin., torn. iii. App. no. 21.— Id. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., torn. ii. p. 43.— Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. 

 p. 413 — Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. ix. p. 390.— Temm. Man. d'Orn.,tom. iii. p. 229.— Gould, Birds of Eur., 

 vol. iii. pi. 177.— Schleg. Rev. Grit, des Ois. d'Eur., p. Ixxi.— Sieb. Temm. et Schleg. Faun. Jap., p. 97, 

 tab. lviii.— Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 377, Emberiza, sp. 6.— Kittl. Kupf. Nat. Vog.,tab. 22. fig-. 2. 

 — Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. i. p. 466, Emberiza, sp. 21.— Swinh. Proc. of Zool. Soc, 1863, pp. 301, 

 337.— Id. Ibis, 1861, p. 255— Blak. Ibis, 1862, p. 328— Whitely, Ibis, 1867, p. 202. 



lesbia, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 871.— Temm. Man. d'Orn., torn. i. p. 317.— Savi, Orn. 



Tosc., torn. iii. p. 223. 



borealis, Zetterst. Resa i Lappm., vol. i. p. 107. 



Durazzi, Bonap. Faun. Ital., torn. i. pi. 35. fig. 1 ? 



Rustic Bunting, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 201.— Id. Gen. Hist., vol. v. p. 325. 



Le Mitilene de Provence, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois., torn. ix. p. 322.— Id. PI. Enl., 656. fig. 2. 



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



The principal habitats of this Bunting arc North China, Amoorland, and Japan, from all of which countries 

 I have seen specimens. During- the last few years solitary individuals have, like many other eastern birds, 

 wandered from their natural homes, and been observed and captured in other countries, among them He- 

 ligoland, and one in this country. In my opinion, it is quite impossible for the most astute ornitho- 

 logist to account for this distant wandering, instances of which may have before occurred ; but we have 

 no record of its having been found in England, nor any mounted specimens in our preserved collections 

 to testify that such has been the case, until the year 1867, when a fine female was captured near Brighton, 

 on the 23rd of October, and is now in the possession of T. J. Monk, Esq., of Mountfield House, Lewes. 

 This occurrence of the bird in Sussex was made known to us by George Dawson Rowley, Esq., of Brighton, 

 a gentleman than whom no one has a greater love for natural history, and whose judgment is unsurpassed 

 in discriminating any new comer that may arrive among us. It will be in the recollection of ornithologists 

 that Mr. Rowley was the first to call their attention to the occurrence of the Emberiza pusitta in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Brighton, the specimen there taken being exhibited at the meeting of the Zoological Society on 

 the 8th of November, 1864, and that he also made us aware of three instances otAnthus campestris having been 

 captured in the same favoured locality. It is very pleasing to have a gentleman among us so ardently interested 

 in the productions of nature, and, with the zeal of a true naturalist, paying equal attention to a living Bunting 

 and the eggs of the extinct Dinomis, of which the most perfect example yet discovered graces his fine 

 collection. 



The facts connected with the capture of the Emberiza rustica in Sussex, as furnished to me by Mr. Rowley, 

 are briefly these : — " On the afternoon of October 23rd, 1867, Mr. Swaysland, of Queen's Road, sent me a 

 bird alive, just caught near Brighton. I examined it then, and next morning at his house, and I pointed 

 out to him that it was a specimen of the Emberiza rustica of Pallas. Mr. Monk subsequently purchased 

 the bird." 



Latham states that this species inhabits the willow-beds of Dauuria, and is there most frequently met with 

 in March ; Gatke informs us that it occasionally visits Heligoland ; and Mr. Swinhoe, in his ' Notes on the 

 Birds observed about Talien Bay, in North China, from June 21 to July 25, I860,' says, " I frequently met 

 with this Bunting, which appeared to be the only species. Its choice habitats were the grass-covered sides 

 of hills, where several together might be seen searching about on the ground for small seeds and insects. 

 Occasionally flitting on the top of a rock, a male would continue to pour out a flow of rich notes, wild in 



their strain, but sweet and melodious. Its twittering call-note is not unlike that of the Robin I 



have not yet met with the bird in Southern China." 



Mr. Henry Whitely, who shot specimens at Hakodadi, in Japan, in the month of October, informs us that 

 the bill is reddish brown, the irides dark hazel, and the legs and toes brownish flesh-colour. 



The male has the lores, sides of the head, and ear-coverts blackish brown ; posterior to the ear-coverts, 

 within the black, a spot of dull greyish white ; above the eye, from the bill to the nape, a broad streak of 

 white in some specimens, and huffy white in others ; above this a stripe nearly black, leaving the centre of 

 the crown brown ; throat white, with a moustache-like mark from the angle of the lower mandible, formed 

 of dark brown feathers, bordered with buffy white ; nape and gorget across the breast rich chestnut-red, 

 each feather with a paler margin ; feathers of the centre of the back brownish black, margined with tawny ; 



