BUNTING. 311 



18— PIPING BUNTING. 



Le Fluteur, Levail. Afr. iii. 61. pi. 112. f. 2. 



LENGTH seven inches. The tail is half as long as the rest of 

 the bird ; bill not exactly that of the Thrush, nor scarcely of a 

 Bunting, with no notch at the tip, colour black-brown ; irides hazel ; 

 plumage above dull rufous, streaked with dusky; appearing about 

 the head and neck more like spots ; under parts from the throat pale 

 yellow, more inclined to white on the neck and breast; throat slightly 

 spotted with dusky ; tail cuneiform, the feathers pointed at the ends, 

 and loose in their webs, appearing as if worn ; quills outwardly rufous, 

 within, and at the ends dusky. 



Female smaller, and the tail shorter, the colours more dull, and 

 the throat plain ; both sexes mostly seen together. 



This is found at the Cape of Good Hope, among the reeds, 

 especially behind the Roude Bosch, and about Constance ; also on 

 the East Coast, but always on the borders of rivers; the nest com- 

 posed of leaves of reeds, within lined with down, and fastened to 

 several reeds ; it lays from five to seven pale rufous eggs ; has a fine 

 kind of whistling note, like that of a flute, whence the name : the 

 female does not whistle like the male, having only a small cry, to 

 answer her mate. — M. Levaillant, who usually discriminates properly, 

 seems at a loss where to place this bird, but from its manners, it 

 may not improperly be ranked with the Buntings, though the eggs 

 are not blotched — a circumstance mostly seen in that Genus. 



19— WHLDAH BUNTING. 



Emberiza paradisea, Ind. Orn. i. 405. Lin. i. 312. Gm. Lin. i. 882. Scop. i. No. 216. 



Borowsk. iii. 146. t. 63. Shaw's Zool. ix. 418. pi. 63. 

 Vidua Africana, Gerin. iii. t. 347. Bris. iii. 120. t. 8. 1. Id. 8vo. i. 340. 

 Passer Indicus macrourus alius, Rati, 87. 10. Will. 184. Pet. Gaz. t. 55. f. I. 



Klein, 90. 22. 



