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EMBERIZA RUSTICA, Pai.

Rustic Bunting.

Emberiza rustica, Pall. Itin., tom. iii. App. no. 21.
borealis, Zetterst. Resa i Lappm., vol. i. p. 107.
Durazzi, Bonap. Faun. Ital., tom. i. pl. 35. fig. 1?
Hypocentor rustica, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 131, note.

Turs is another bird of eastern origin which has been recently added to the list of occasional visitors to
Britain, a veritable example having been captured near Brighton, in Sussex, a county which has been favoured
by the occurrence of a far greater number of novelties than any other part of England. ‘This fact has been
recorded by me before, and nearly in the same words, in my account of the species in my work on the
‘Birds of Asia ;’ and as I therein gave all that is known respecting the history of the bird, and have acquired
no additional information since, I cannot do better than repeat what I have there said.

« The principal habitats of this Bunting are North China, Amoorland, and Japan, from all of which countries
I have seen specimens. During the last few years solitary individuals have wandered from their natural
homes, and been observed and captured in other countries, among them Heligoland, and one in this country.
In my opinion, it is quite impossible for the most astute ornithologist to account for this distant wandering,
instances of which may have before occurred ; but we have no record of its having been found in England
until the year 1867, when a fine female was captured near Brighton, on the 23rd of October, and is now in
the possession of T. J. Monk, Esq., of Mountfield House, Lewes. This occurrence of the bird in Sussex
was made known to us by George Dawson Rowley, Esq., of Brighton, a gentleman than whom no one has a
greater love for natural history, and whose judgment is unsurpassed in discriminating any new comer that
may arrive among us.

«The facts connected with its capture, as furnished to me by Mr. Rowley, are briefly these :—‘ On the
afternoon of October 23rd, 1867, Mr. Swaysland, of Queen’s Road, sent me a bird alive, just caught near
Brighton. I examined it then, and next morning at his house, and I pointed out to him that it was a
specimen of the Emberiza rustica of Pallas. Mr. Monk subsequently purchased the bird.’

‘Latham states that this species inhabits the willow-beds of Dauuria, and is there most frequently met with
in March ; Gatke informs us that it occasionally visits Heligoland; and Mr. Swinhoe, in his ‘ Notes on the
Birds observed about Talien Bay, in North China, from June 21 to July 25, 1860,’ says, ‘I frequently met
with this Bunting, which appeared to be the only species. Its choice habitats were the grass-covered sides
of hills, where several together might be seen searching about on the ground for small seeds and insects.
Occasionally flitting on the top of a rock, a male would continue to pour out a flow of rich notes, wild in
their strain, but sweet and melodious. Its twittering call-note is not unlike that of the Robin... .. I
have not yet met with the bird in Southern China.’

« Mr. Henry Whitely, who shot specimens in Hakodadi, in Japan, in the month of October, informs us that
the bill is reddish brown, the irides dark hazel, and the legs and toes brownish flesh-colour.

« The male has the lores, sides of the head, and ear-coverts blackish brown ; posterior to the ear-coverts,
within the black, a spot of dull greyish white; above the eye, from the bill to the nape, a broad streak of
white in some specimens and buffy white in others ; above this is a stripe nearly black, leaving the centre of
the crown brown; throat white, with a moustache-like mark from the angle of the lower mandible, formed
of dark brown feathers, bordered with buffy white; nape and gorget across the breast rich chestnut-red,
each feather with a paler margin ; feathers of the centre of the back brownish black, margined with tawny ;
rump and upper tail-coverts chestnut-red, edged with tawny ; greater and lesser wing-coverts brownish black,
margined externally with tawny and tipped with buffy white ; primaries and most of the secondaries brown,
narrowly edged with tawny ; the last three or four secondaries, nearest the body, conspicuously margined
with tawny ; under surface white, with the exception of the centres of the flank-feathers, which are chestnut-
red; tail dark brown, the centre feathers edged with tawny ; a broad longitudinal oblique stripe of white
down the centre of the external feather, and a narrower one down the next on each side.

“In the female the general arrangement of the colouring of the body is very similar, but much paler; the
flank-marks extend further down the sides ; and the ear-coverts and the black above the superciliary mark
are much less deep.”

The Plate represents a male and a female, of the size of life, the figure of the latter being taken from the

example captured at Brighton.