TINE BUXTING. 87 



The Pine Bunting is a cheerful lively bird, with a 

 note similar to the other members of its family. In 

 its habits, it resembles the Reed Bunting. It feeds on 

 insects, and seeds of some of the mountain plants, and 

 probably also on those of the reed and other water 

 plants; in winter on oats, millet, etc. Of its nidification 

 I am sorry to say I can add nothing. 



The male has the top of the head white, bordered 

 with black, which is also the colour of the forehead; 

 a band extending from the base of the beak beneath 

 the eyes, a demi collar round the front of the neck, 

 the centre of the abdomen, the distal half of each 

 lateral tail feather, and under wing and tail coverts, 

 white. Scapularies and upper wing coverts chcsnut 

 brown, with longitudinal patches of black; rump russet; 

 tail above dark brown. Primaries dark brown, edged 

 externally with white; tertials dark brown, deeply bor- 

 dered with russet; cheeks and throat deep chesnut; 

 crop and flanks mottled with same colour of a lighter 

 tint; wings and tail below brown; beak brown above, 

 yellowish beneath; tarsi yellow; iris brown. 



In the female, according to Degland, the white 

 mark on the top of the head is only slightly indicated; 

 there is no russet on the throat; the upper parts are 

 of a brown russet, inferior whitish; wings and tail as 

 in the male. 



The young male is thus described by Prince Charles 

 Bonaparte, in the "Revue et Magasin de Zoologie" for 

 April, 1857:— "The top of the head, the auditory 

 region, and the shoulders, bright bay; the feathers on 

 the top of the head blackish in the middle, and the 

 ears are edged with the same colour in an undecided 

 manner. The large superciliary feathers and the 

 moustache, which are spread out at the end, and so 



