EMBERIZA CINEREA, Strickl.

Cinereous Buntine.

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Emberiza cinerea, Strickl. in Proc. Zool. Soc., part iv., 1836, p. 99.—Gray & Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol.
p. 377, Emberiza, sp. 12.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 464, Emberiza, Seo eeel ance Venison
Strickl., p. clxi.

 

Ir gives me great pleasure to figure in the ‘ Birds of Asia’ this very rare species of Bunting, inasmuch as it
affords me an opportunity of reminding my readers, if indeed, such a reminder were necessary, of the ex-
istence, discoveries, and writings of the late Hugh E. Strickland, whose early, sad, and lamented death is
still and will long be retained in the memory of his many friends and admirers, among whom I am happy
to be numbered. More especially do I figure this bird with pleasure, since Strickland not only gave it a
name, but was its first discriminator. The original description appeared in his *‘ List of Birds noticed or
obtained in Asia Minor in the winter of 1835 and spring of 1836,” published in the ‘ Proceedings of the
Zoological Society’ for the latter year, p. 97; the specimen from which it was taken is now in the Cambridge
University Museum, to which the whole of Strickland’s collections have been presented by his widow, the
second daughter of that veteran ornithologist Sir William Jardine, Bart. I have two in my own cabinet,
sent to this country direct from Smyrna by Dr. Kraper, and I hear that many others have been collected
in the same locality; still the bird is so rare and so little known to ornithologists, that some of them have
even questioned its existence, and others have considered it a mere variety of some previously known
species ; but these doubts will, I think, be readily dispelled from the mind of any one, conversant with birds,
who will be good enough to examine my figures in the accompanying Plate, or obtain specimens from the
neighbourhood of Smyrna, where it was met. with by Strickland, and where we now know it is by no means
uncommon.

At a first glance the bird would appear to be a Kuspiza or a Glycyspina ; but it is really a true Bunting,
the knob under the roof of the upper mandible being as conspicuous as in the most typical of the Emberizine.
As is usual with this group of birds, the sexes are very different in colouring, the female being destitute of
the yellow tint on the head which distinguishes the male, and consequently is a more sombre-looking bird,
as will be seen on reference to the figures of the two sexes on my Plate.

Nothing, so far as I am able to ascertain, is on record respecting the habits and economy of this Bunting.

 

The following is Strickland’s description, upon which I cannot improve :

‘* Wale. Crown of the head greenish yellow, becoming cinereous at the nape ; back cinereo-fuscous,
with an obscure streak of brown down the middle of each feather ; rump cinereous ; tail dark brown, the
two lateral pairs of feathers white on the inner web for nearly half their length towards the extremities ;
wings dark brown, the coverts and quills margined with whitish, the scapularies with fulvous; chin and
throat yellow, becoming greenish on the cheeks; breast cinereous ; abdomen white; sides cinereous; bill
dusky ; legs flesh-colour.

“Total length 6 inches, bill 2, wing 32, tail 22, tarsi 2.

“The beak of this species most nearly resembles that of Emberiza cia.

‘Habitat. The low hills near Smyrna. Killed in April.”

The female is characterized, as above mentioned, by the absence of the yellow colouring on the face and
throat, by having a gorget of small streaks of brown down the sides and across the base of the throat, and
by the feathered eyelash being white instead of yellow.

The figures are of the natural size.

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