Walt 2Y

EMBERIZA PUSILLA, Pail.
Dwarf Bunting.

Emberiza pusilla, Pall. Reise, tom. ili. p. 697.

sordida, Hodgs. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xiii. p. 958.

oinops, subgen. Ocyris, Hodgs. Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xiii. 1845, p. 35.
Euspiza pusilla ?, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 130.

Emberiza oinops, Gray, Cat. of Spec. and Draw. of Mamm. and Birds pr. to Brit. Mus. by B. H. Hodgson, Esq.,
p. 108.

Ocyris oinops, Hodgs. in Gray’s Zool. Misc., 1844, p. 84.

Wirn reference to the occurrence of this Asiatic species in England I cannot, perhaps, do better than
transcribe the account sent by George Dawson Rowley, Esq., of Brighton, to ‘ The Ibis’ for 1865 (p. 113) :-—
«On the 2nd of November, 1864,” says this gentleman, ‘a boy brought to Mr. Swaysland, the naturalist
of this place, a very small bird of an unknown species, which he had just caught outside the town.
Mr. Swaysland immediately sent for me ; and I carefully examined it alive to discover if possible any signs of
captivity ; but the edges of the feathers and the top of the head were perfect, and above all there were no
square marks on the feet such as are caused by the perches of a cage. These indications being all
satisfactory, I concluded that we had a wild bird before us; and a short investigation made it pretty clear
that the species was the Emberiza pusilla of Pallas.

“] then wrote to Mr. Gould, who kindly undertook to exhibit it at the meeting of the Zoological Society
on November the 8th, and he has since drawn its portrait for his magnificent book on British Birds.”

In compliance with Mr. Rowley’s wish I had the pleasure of submitting the specimen to the inspection of
the Fellows of the Zoological Society present at the date above mentioned; and the opposite plate is an
exact fac-simile of the drawing to which he refers.

The above comprises all that is known respecting the Emberiza pusilla as a member of our avifauna ; of
its history in other parts of the world I have but little to add to the information respecting it which appears
in my ‘ Birds of Asia,’ and which is here transcribed.

“This is one of the most ubiquitous Buntings in existence ; for it is spread far and wide over the
northern portion of the Old World, being found in China, in the Amoorland, the Himalayas, the Daurian
Alps, India, the northern and central parts of Europe, accidentally in Italy and Heligoland, and has appeared
once at least in Britain.

«Pallas, who was the first to make us aware of its existence, states that it inhabits the neighbourhood of
the rivers and the larch-grounds among the torrents of the Daurian Alps; Dr. Bree states that it lives and
breeds in the neighbourhood of Archangel, and mentions that one of four specimens sent to him from Paris
was labelled ‘Mer d’ Ochotzsk;’ Mr. Hodgson ‘ncludes it in his list of the Birds of Nepaul ; Mr, Swinhoe
remarks that in North China it occurs in small flocks on the banks of canals and the edges of waterpools
between Takoo and Peking, and that in winter a few visit the southern parts of that country ; and Mr. Jerdon
says :—‘ This small Bunting is found throughout the whole extent of the Himalayas during the winter. I
procured it at Darjeling, Hodgson in Nepal, and Adams in the north-west. It frequents bare spots of
ground with low bushes, in small flocks. Adams says it has the habits of a Redpole. I shot one near
Kolassee, in the Purneah district, frequenting grass and bushes near a small river; and as it is a bird not
likely to be remarked, it will probably be found in similar places throughout the plains in the north of India

?

during the cold weather.’ ’
«The only specimen of this small Bunting that we brought home,” says Herr Gustav Radde, ‘I shot on

the 18th September, on the upper Amoor, a little below the mouth of the Oldoi. It was a female that quite
agrees with Pallas’s description. In the autumn dress, the feathers of the head have rust-yellow edges,
which make both the black side stripes and rust-coloured middle stripes somewhat indistinct, and only to
show in spots. I found a nest of this Bunting in the lower Amoorland, in a scanty part of the pine-
forest between the lake of Kidsi and the sea-coast. It lay on the ground between moor-tussocks, and was
artlessly made of spines of the larch and pine. The eggs in it, five in number, were exactly of the size
and form described by Middendorff, viz. strongly tapering, 17:5 millim. long, and 14 broad, covered, on a
dirty-white ground, all over with very many violet-brown spots and markings: on the 17th June they were
still quite unincubated. We may observe, by the way, that here and there between the tussocks in the
wood there lay remains of snow.” (Schrenck’s ‘ Vogel des Awmurlandes,’ p. 289.)