EMBERIZA FUCATA, Pait.
Painted Bunting.

Emberiza fucata, Pall. Itin. App., no. 22.—Id. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 41, pl. 46.—Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst.
Nat., tom. i. p. 871.—Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p.419.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. ix. p. 385.—Blyth, Journ.
Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xi. p. 601, vol. xiii. p. 957 ?>—Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 377, Emberiza, sp. 7.
—Sieb. Temm. et Schleg. Faun. Jap., p. 96, tab. lviii—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 464, Emberiza,
sp. 3.—Jerd. Birds of India, vol. ii. part i. p. 375 ?—Blak. Ibis, 1862, p. 328.—Swinh. Ibis, 1860, p. 61,
1861, pp. 45, 334, 1863, p. 378 ; Proc. of Zool. Soc., 1863, pp. 301, 337.—Whitely, Ibis, 1867, p. 202.
=e welZzy Ubi eGo. pn alte:

———— lesbia, Gould, Birds of Eur., vol. ii. pl. 178.—Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit. tom. ii. p. 235.

——- cia, Jerd. Cat.

—_—— provincialis, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 881 ?

 

 

Durazzi, Bonap. Faun. Ital., tom. i. pl. 35, fig. 2?
Le Gavoné de Provence, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois., tom. iv. p. 321 ?—Id. Pl. Enl. 656. fig. 1
Coloured Bunting, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., 11. p. 202.—Id. Gen. Hist., vol. v. p. 332.
ELuspiza fucata, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 129 ?—Id. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol.
xxiii. p. 215 ?—Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in Mus. East-Ind. Comp., vol. ii. p. 488 ?

tw

Onychospina fucata, Bonap. Compt. Rend. de l’Acad. Sci., 1853, p.
Hypocentor fucatus, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 131, note.

 

Tue figures in the accompanying Plate were taken from Japanese and Chinese specimens—that of the male
from an example killed at Hakodadi by Mr. Henry Whitely, and that of the female from a specimen collected
near Canton. I mention this particularly, because I find that Japanese and Indian examples differ consi-
derably both in size and colour; unfortunately I have not a sufficient number of Indian birds at my command
to determine with certainty whether they constitute two species, or if they must be regarded as mere local
varieties; I strongly suspect, however, that the Indian bird, which is the smallest in size, and has the
rufous colouring of the under surface of a deeper tint and more widely spread, has yet to receive a specific
appellation, unless it should prove to be identical with Gmelin’s Emberiza provincialis. The European bird
so called certainly assimilates to Indian rather than to Chinese examples; I have therefore placed a mark of
doubt against all those synonyms having reference to European and Indian birds. Siebold, ‘'emminck, and
Schlegel have given a good figure of this bird in their ‘ Fauna Japonica,’ wherein, after mentioning that
Pallas’s bird was from Dauuria, they say—‘‘ the Dutch voyagers found it in Japan, and sent thence nume-
rous examples to the Museum of the Netherlands; and it is from them that the description of Emberiza
lesbia, given in the third volume of Temminck’s ‘Manual of Ornithology,’ and the figure which Mr. Gould
has published, under the same name, in the third volume of bis ‘ Birds of Europe,’ were taken. It has been
said that some specimens of this Bunting have been observed in the South of France and in Italy; but the
descriptions and figures given of them are not sufficiently accurate to prove their identity with the painted
Bunting of Eastern Asia.

‘This species, which is one of the most curious of its genus, is distinguished from all the others by the
length of the tertiaries, which cover the primaries throughout nearly their whole length, and by the claw of
the hind toe being a little longer and less curved than ordinary, which latter circumstance, recalling to our
minds the Larks, Pipits, Wagtails, and other birds which mostly frequent the ground, leads one to suppose
that this Bunting differs in its mode of life from all the other members of the genus, which, as is well known,
gives the preference to trees. Pallas, indeed, says that it inhabits the islets and meadows of Dauuria ; and to
this limited information his notice of the habits of the bird is confined.”

Whether the Indian bird be the same or not, I think it well to append Mr. Jerdon’s account of those seen
there by him :—‘‘ This Bunting appears to spread sparingly through Northern and Central India in the cold
weather. It has been found in Bengal, near Calcutta occasionally, in some seasons occurring rather plentifully,
also in Nepaul and the Dehra Dhoon, and is not uncommon about Simla and Mussooree. I have seen it at Ane
in the Deccan, at Mhow and at Sangor, and also near Nagpore. In most of these places it was frequenting
rocky and bashy hills in small parties ; and I occasionally saw it in the fields, near hedges and trees. Its
Hindustani name, which means stone-grazer, is given to it from its being seen so much about rocks and
stones.

‘In some specimens the pectoral band is more or less imperfect, consisting chiefly of spots ; and the sides

of the abdomen are streaked with brown. In the cold weather the majority want the mesial streak on the