6% MARSH BUNTING. 



the habits of the two birds prove them to be of 

 different species. E. schceniculus lives among' bushes, 

 and always remains on ground far from water, feeding 

 upon seeds; while E. palustris is always found estab- 

 lished near water, climbing up the reeds, and feeding 

 on the muddy banks of ponds. Then the two species 

 are never found mixed together in the same flock. 

 I have killed as many as ten in the same flock 

 without finding one schceniculus , and, what is worthy 

 of note, without in such a number finding one with 

 the beak of the same size and form as in that bird, 

 which would naturally have been the case, had they 

 been varieties of the same species." 



At page 825 of the third volume, we have also the 

 following interesting; account of the habits of this bird: 

 — "The Black-headed Bunting is found in Tuscany 

 during the summer, inhabiting watery places covered 

 with reeds. A great number hatch in the marshes of 

 Castiglione, so that in crossing the intricate passages 

 made by the fishermen cutting the reeds, which rise 

 so high as to exclude all but a small portion of sky, 

 the low moaning of the wind is uninterrupted, except 

 by the distant voice of the Tarabugio, (Bittern,) which 

 sounds shrill over the dead water, or the continual 

 croaking of the Passera di Padule, which then remains 

 obstinately hidden. It has a voice similar to the 

 Uena esculenta, (frog,) but it is even more sonorous." 



Count Miihle, in his "Beitraege zur Ornithologie 

 Griechlands," says, "Emberiza pyrrhuloides is considered 

 to be a distinct species from E. schceniculus. All the 

 proportions are larger and stronger, the head much 

 thicker and longer, the beak peculiarly arched, unlike 

 that of any other species, the colouring of the plumage 

 is much brighter, and in broader masses, the black on 



