26 
British Birds. 
This species, which is easily distinguished by its red bill from 
the two preceding species, is to be recognised by the absence of 
stripes on the flanks, by its cinnamon-coloured breast and olive- 
yellow throat. The hen bird is paler in colour and has dark 
brown streaks on the fore-neck and lower throat. 
Considering the wide range of the Ortolan, it is strange that it has not been 
noticed more often in the British Islands, but it is doubtless overlooked or mistaken 
for one of the allied species of Buntings. It must be considered a rare but regular 
visitor to Great Britain. The species is spread over the greater part of Europe in 
the summer, and extends in Asia as far as the valley of the Irtisch, and it winters in 
Central Asia and probably in North-eastern Africa as well. Mr. Seebohm says that 
the Ortolan is not shy in its nature, and has much the same habits as our 
Yellow Bunting, sitting on the top of a tree and uttering a song like that of the 
last-named bird, but without the curious ending which is characteristic of A. 
citrinella. The nest is built on the ground, and the eggs are from four to 
six in number, differing in appearance from those of the other British Buntings, 
and being most like those of the Reed Bunting, but clearer and paler in colour, 
and having black spots instead of streaks and lines. 
The Siberian Meadow Bunting ( Emberiza cioides ) has once been noticed in 
England, a specimen having been obtained at Flamborough, in Yorkshire, in October, 
1887. It is a Siberian species, shewing no yellow on the under parts, with a chestnut 
lower back and rump, and the crown of the head and ear-coverts chestnut in the male. 
In the female the head is dark brown in the centre, with lateral bands of chestnut. 
The Corn Bunting ( Miliaria miliaria). This species is very like a Lark in 
appearance, being of a sober brown colour, with a tail longer than the wing, and the 
inner secondary-quills so long that they nearly equal the primaries in length, as 
is the case with the Wagtails and Pipits. 
Although somewhat local in its habitat, 
the Corn Bunting is distributed over 
the whole of the British Islands, It is 
a species of the Western Palsearctic 
Region, not breeding outside European 
limits, nor extending very far north, 
but being found in winter as far 
east as the Persian Gulf. In Great 
Britain it is commonly observed in 
summer, when it sits on some telegraph 
wire by the side of the road, or on the 
top of a tree or hedge, and utters its 
somewhat monotonous and long- 
drawn-out trill, which resembles that 
The Siberian Meadow Bunting. 
THE ORTOLAN 
BUNTING. 
(Emberiza 
hortulana). 
