black-headed bunting. 
SB 
and slightly forked; the two outer feathers on each side are 
white, with an oblique dusky brown patch at the base and 
tip, the shafts black; the middle pair are dark brown, slightly 
margined with rufous, the others blackish brown; upper tail 
coverts, bluish grey streaked with blackish, the shafts being 
of that colour; under tail coverts, white. Legs, toes, and 
claws, dusky brown. 
The female is rather less in size than the male. Length, 
five inches and a half; from the base of the bill extends a 
brown streak, joining a patch of that colour under the neck, 
and spreading over the breast in dusky spots. Iris, dusky 
brown; over it is a*pale yellowish or reddish grey streak, 
which meets that on- the back of the neck. Head and crown, 
dusky reddish or yellowish brown, varied with darker brown 
on the centre of the feathers; there is a band of pale yellowish 
or reddish grey round the back of the neck, which in front 
is of the same colour, with two irregular bands of blackish 
brown. On each side of the chin descends a streak of dark 
brown; throat and breast, dull white, more clouded with 
greyish brown than in the male, and streaked with dark 
reddish brown; back, dusky, bordered with rusty brown. 
Greater and lesser wing coverts, broadly edged with rufous; 
tertiaries, broadly edged with rufous; upper tail coverts, pale 
greyish brown tinged with red. Legs, toes, and claws, pale 
brown. 
The young birds resemble the female, but with duller tints, 
and the sides of the head of a brownish grey colour. The 
black on the head is assumed by the young males in the 
following spring after their first autumn, and the white ring 
is not so conspicuous as in older birds; the bill is a bluish 
red colour, and the legs the same; the eye as in the adult 
bird. 
A pied variety of this species, a male, was met with in 
the year 1850, at Longhirst, in Northumberland. It was 
beautifully mottled with black, brown, and white, but white 
was the predominant colour. 
