prefer young woods with a mixture of pine, fir, alder, and
birch. We often heard their sweet low song, more resembling
the warbling of some Sylvia than of an Emberiza,
which was generally poured forth from the top of a tre e ;
they had also a low cry of alarm, which. may he expressed
by the words ‘ tick, tick, tick’ repeated at intervals of about
a second. We did not find any nests, hut obtained the
young in several stages.”
Pallas, who in Dauuria discovered this species, described
it as being common about the mountain-torrents and in the
higher larch-woods of that country, subsequently adding
willow-beds to these localities. It is there migratory but
often killed'by the cold. In spring it eats beetles of the
family Tenebrionidce. His successors in the exploration of
Eastern Siberia have amplified his observations. Dr. von
Middendorff found it breeding on the Boganida, where, however,
it was very rare and he only obtained two of its nests
from which he figures three eggs. He also observed it on
passage on the shore of the Sea of Ochotsk. Dr. von
Schrenck found a nest on the Lower Amoor in the opening
of a fir-forest. This contained five eggs, was placed on
the ground between the tussocks of a swamp, and was artlessly
built of grass-stalks and larch-leaves. Prof. Badde,
in the south of Eastern Siberia, obtained nearly a score
of specimens, including the young and old of both sexes,
hut as a breeding bird it seemed to him to be rare and
segregated. It was late to arrive and late to depart. In
the north of China Mr. Swinhoe says it is abundant, spreading
southward in winter. At the same season it is found
over the whole extent of the Himalayas, and would seem
occasionally to wander into the plains of India during the
cold weather, for Jerdon who had already procured it at
Darjeeling afterwards shot one near Kolassee in the Purneah
district. Mr. Hodgson obtained it in Nepaul, and Prof.
Adams in the North-west Provinces.
The eggs are figured by Dr. von Middendorff as having an
ochreous-white ground, blotched and spotted with reddish-
brown and black, and measuring from -88 to *7 by from -58
to *53 in. A specimen in the writer’s possession from Archangel,
and attributed to this species, is coloured like a normal
egg of the Lapland Bunting, and measures *71 by *57 in.
The adult male in breeding plumage has the bill dark
brown with the lower mandible lighter: the sides of the
head, lower portion of the ear-coverts and a median streak
along the top of the head, dull chestnut; on each side of this
streak is a broader stripe of deep black, which then passes
downward behind the ear-coverts and encloses a small patch
of buffy-white; the sides of the neck are dull white
almost forming a collar, but interrupted on the nape, the
feathers of which with those , of the mantle, back, rump
and upper wing-coverts are dark brown, bordered with light
brown and chestnut; the middle and greater wmg-coverts
dark brown, bordered with greyish-white and tipped with
light buff, forming two light bars across the wing; wing-
and tail-quills dark brown with narrow light brown edges,
except the two outer tail-quills which have each an elongated
white patch on the inner web ; chin light chestnut
becoming paler on the throat which is dull white; breast,
belly and lower parts generally dull white with spots or
streaks of dark brown forming a band across the chest
continued along the sides of the body and flanks: legs, toes
and claws, dark brown.
The bill in this species has scarcely a trace of the palatal
knob. The whole length is about five inches; from the
carpal joint to the tip of the wing two inches and three-
quarters.
The female much resembles the male, but the chestnut
of the head is less bright, and the stripes on the same part
broader and dark brown instead of black; the chin and
throat are only tinged with chestnut and the pectoral band
is less strongly marked.
The young in autumn is very like the adult female,
but the broad stripes on the head are less well defined, the
margins of all the feathers above are more rufous and there
is a decidedly rufous tinge on all the lower parts from the
chin to the vent.