YELLOW-HEADED BUNTING. 61 



is recorded by Temminck and Degland as having been 

 seen during its migration in the Crimea. I do not, 

 however, find any notice of its occurrence there by Dr. 

 Carte or Captains Blakiston and Irby. Latham says it 

 inhabits the pine forests of Katherinesburg, and that it 

 is not met with on the poplars and willows in the islands 

 of the Irtish and other rivers in Siberia. Middendorff 

 notices its occurrence in his Siberische Reise; and 

 Brehm, in his description of eggs in Badeker's work, 

 has the following notice: — 



"This pretty little Bunting dwells among the bushes 

 which overgrow the low meadow land of Siberia, from 

 the Ural to Kamtschatka. It builds an half-globular 

 nest away from the ground, of sedges, grasses, or rushes, 

 and lines its inside with feathers and hairs. It lays 

 five eggs of a very pretty short oval shape, the ground- 

 work of which is greyish green, with grey and blackish 

 veins, black brown bordered points, having round spots 

 marked upon them." In the plate to which the notice 

 refers, four varieties are figured, from which I have 

 selected two. Middendorff also figures the egg. His 

 drawing resembles most the lighter of the two varieties 

 in my plate. 



The male has the top of the head a rich maroon, 

 and the rump is of the same colour, though more mot- 

 tled; back and wings are brown, shaded with longitu- 

 dinal patches of a darker tint; the upper tail feathers 

 are brown; those round the base of the neck and cheeks 

 deep black; throat and chest canary yellow, being 

 separated by a band forming a half-circle of the same 

 rich maroon which marks the top of the head; abdomen 

 and flanks light yellow; under tail coverts white; pri- 

 maries and secondaries the same uniform brown as the 

 tail; tertials darker brown, edged with rufous; the 



