E u s p iz a m e la n o c e ph a l a (Scopoli*).
THE BLACK-HEADED * BUNTING.
Euspiza, Bonapartef .—Bill hard, straight, conical, rather long and powerful;
mandibles about equal in size, their edges but slightly inflected and sinuated ;
the palate almost smooth. Nostrils oval, basal and placed somewhat near the
culmen, but quite clear of the feathers. Gape angular. Wings rather long :
first primary finely attenuated and so small as to seem wanting ; second, third
and fourth nearly equal and one of them the longest in the wing. Tail rather
long and slightly forked. Tarsus scutellate in front and at the lower part of the
sides, which are elsewhere covered by an undivided plate, forming a sharp ridge
behind, rather longer than the middle toe. Claws but slightly curved, that of
the hind toe of moderate length.
T h i s is the third species of Bunting whose first appearance
in England it has been Mr. Gould’s fortune to bring to
the notice of ornithologists. He states (Ibis, 1869, p. 128)
that a very fine old ferpale specimen was submitted to
him by Mr. Robert Brazener of Brighton, who had shot it
on the racfecourse near that town about November 3rd, 1868,
while it was following a flock of Yellow Hammers.
(176lf,m^m 'Z(X me^anoce^ la^a> Scopoli, Annus I. Historico-Naturalis, p. 142
+ Supplemento alio Specchio comparative delle Ornitologie di Roma e Fila-
delfia, p. 10 (1832).
Unlike the two other species of the family admitted to
this work in the present Edition, that which is now under
consideration is far from possessing a high northern range,
and its claims to recognition as a “ British Bird ” are of the
slightest. Still the fact that it has reached Heligoland,
where Mr. Gatke has obtained three specimens in as many
successive years (Ibis, 1875, p. 183), favours the possibility
of its voluntary appearance in England, though the season
of the year at which the example recorded by Mr. Gould
occurred proves that it must have been a chance wanderer,
for even in the south-east of Europe it is only a summer-
visitant and in the south-west it seems never to shew itself.
The Heligoland birds were met with at the end of May or
in June. It is said to have been taken some six or seven
times near Marseilles, all the examples but one, which was
procured in autumn, being obtained in April or May. According
to Dr. Salvadori and others it is not of frequent
occurrence in Italy, though it is captured almost every year
in Liguria, has been discovered breeding in the Veronese
province and is still less rare in Venetia, no doubt passing
over from Dalmatia, which has long been known as a country
in which it is abundant. Further to the southward it has
been once obtained at Rimini, once in Sicily and occasionally,
according to Mr. Wright, in Malta. Several examples are
said to have been killed near Vienna,* and one in Bohemia,
while its occurrence near Kiev in Russia has been recorded.
Turning to the south-east the bird becomes abundant in
Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor and the Caucasus, whence it
retires on the approach of winter to the North-west Provinces
of India and the Deccan, where it is found in immense flocks.
Though a summer-visitant to the Cyclades, Crete, Cyprus
and Palestine, it is unknown in Egypt, or for the matter of
that in any part of Africa.
This species is said by Canon Tristram to have in
Palestine nothing in its habits and appearance to recall
the true Buntings, hut on the other hand Mr. Robson in a
* Naumann had information of a male, said to have been shot near Leipzig,
but was unable to satisfy himself of its truth (Yog. Deutsch. iv. p. 231, note).
VOL. I I . K