communication to Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, describes
them on the Bosphorus as being similar to those of the
great Bunting, and in its manner of flying from one elevated
post to another, with its legs hanging down, the likeness is
obvious. Its song is said to he agreeable, and its nest to
he a compact structure, lined with fibres and hairs, and
placed either on the ground or in a low bush, often, according
to Col. Drummond-Hay, on the stump of an old vine.
The eggs, generally six in number, are quite unlike those of
any known species of Emberiza, being of a pale greenish-white,
speckled with light ash-colour and dull olive, besides a few
patches of dusky lavender. They measure from *9 to ‘8 by
from *64 to -61 in. This species seems to subsist almost
entirely upon grain, in which respect it departs from most
of the normal Emberizidce, and it is said to do considerable
damage to growing crops, though probably the young are
fed with insects.
The adult male, in summer, has the upper mandible dark
grey, the lower, horn-coloured : the irides hazel: the head
and ear-coverts are deep black, traces of the brown edging
of the feathers in winter being however often visible ; nape,
sides of the breast, hack scapulars, least wing-coverts and
rump, bright orange-brown or light bay ; wings hair-brown,
the middle and lower wing-coverts being broadly, and the
flight-feathers narrowly, edged with brownish-white; tail
almost uniform hair-brown; chin and the whole of the
lower parts, bright gamboge-yellow, which extends under
and behind the ear-coverts towards the nape so as almost to
form a collar : legs, toes and claws yellowish-brown.
In winter the bright colours of the upper parts are almost
entirely hidden by the dull brown edging of the feathers,
and those of the hack shew a dark brown shaft-stripe; the
yellow of the lower parts is also clouded by the feathers
being tipped with ash-colour. The brilliant hues are however
always perceptible at the base on examination.
In the adult female the black of the head is replaced by
dark brown feathers with broad edges of a lighter shade,
having a yellowish tinge; the mantle and rump are of
much the same colour as in the male, but the middle of
the back, scapulars and least wing-coverts are very much
duller and the feathers streaked with dark brown along the
shaft; the quills of the wings and tail are as in the male ;
beneath, the chin and throat are dull white slightly tinged
with yellow, passing on the breast into pale buffy-brown intermixed
with yellow; sides of the breast patched with bay;
belly pale dull brown mingled with yellow, especially in the
middle ; lower tail-coverts dirty yellow.
The whole length of the male is about six inches and
four-fifths; the wing measures three inches and three-
quarters : the second primary is slightly longer than the
third or fourth and is consequently the longest in the wing.
The female is a little smaller.
The separation of this species from the genus Emberiza
seems to be advisable, its straight and powerful bill, almost
devoid of any palatal knob, its essentially granivorous habit
and the character of its eggs affording fair grounds for so
doing ; and it is worthy of remark that it was not referred
to that genus by either of the two distinguished Russian
naturalists who treated of it many years ago—Giildenstadt
(N. Comm. Ac. Petrop. xix. p. 466) making it a Tanagra, and
Pallas (Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 428) a Xanthornus, or, as we
should now say, an Icterus. Two other beautiful species of
the Old World have been generally, and most likely properly,
assigned to the genus Euspiza—the E. aureola of Northeastern
Europe and of Asia, and the E. luteola of Central
Asia and of India—as well as the E. americana of the New
World, though whether this last is rightly included the writer
does not feel himself competent to declare.*
* The occurrence in Great Britain of two examples of the North-Amevican
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia aibicollis)—the one near Aberdeen, August
17th, 1867, the other near Brighton, March 22nd, 1872—has been recorded by
Mr. Angus (Proc. N. H. Soc. Glasg. i. p. 209) and Mr. Rowley (Proc, Zool. Soc.
1872, p. 681) respectively. The genus to which this species belongs is allied
to if not one of the true Emberizidce, but as a land-bird of the New World it
does not come within the scope of this book.