THE LITTLE BUNTING. 

 Emberiza pusilla, Pallas. 

 Plate i8. 



The first specimen of the Little Bunting obtained in the British Islands was 

 one caught near Brighton in November 1864. It has since occurred a good many 

 times, and seems now to be a more or less regular autumn visitant to Fair Isle, 

 Shetlands. 



This is an Arctic species; in summer breeding in northern Russia and 

 Siberia, passing southwards in autumn as far as China, India, and the Andaman 

 Islands. 



Seebohm, describing its habits, writes {British Birds, vol. ii., p. 145): "It was 

 most common in the pine- and birch-forests, and was frequently seen feeding on 

 the ground on the mossy and marshy open spaces in the woods, on the swampy 

 edge of the forest tarns, searching for insects in company with Green and White 

 Wagtails, Temminck's Stints, Fieldfares, Blue-throated Warblers, and other 

 Arctic birds." 



The nest, the same author says, "was nothing but a hole made in the dead 

 leaves, moss, and grass, copiously and carefully lined with fine dead grass," and 

 the five eggs were in ground colour " pale grey, with bold twisted blotches and 

 irregular round spots of very dark grey, and equally large underlying shell- 

 markings of paler grey." 



The Little Bunting feeds on seeds and insects, and the song has more 

 resemblance to a Warbler's than a Bunting's. 



In the female the plumage generally is duller than that of the male. 



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