Emberiza spodocephala Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs (1776), 3, 698;
Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 12, 522; Grant, Ibis (1895),
258; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 240; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List
(1906), 104.
Catanduanes (Whitehead). Eastern Siberia; in winter to Assam,
Manipur, China, and eastern Himalayas; accidental in Japan.
"Adult male in summer plumage.--General color above dark brown,
the feathers of the upper back slightly washed with rufous, edged
with fulvous and broadly streaked down the middle with black;
scapulars like the back; lesser wing-coverts uniform reddish brown;
median and greater series blackish brown, externally sandy brown,
margined paler and tipped with buffy white, more distinct on the median
coverts; the inner greater coverts more distinctly rufous externally;
primary-coverts and quills dusky brown, externally fringed with ashy;
quills dusky brown, externally washed with rufous, the primaries with
ashy white; inner secondaries resembling the inner greater coverts;
lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts uniform earthy brown;
center tail-feathers light brown, the remainder dark brown, edged
with lighter brown, the penultimate one with a large wedge-shaped
mark of white near the end of the outer web, the outer feather almost
entirely white save for an oblique black mark on the inner web and
a small brown mark at the end of the outer web; head and neck all
round, including the sides of the face and neck, throat, and chest
ashy gray with a distinct wash of olive; lores, base of cheeks,
and chin black; breast pale sulphur-yellow, whiter towards the vent;
under tail-coverts pale sulphur-yellow; thighs ashy olive; sides of
breast and flanks reddish brown, rather distinctly striped with black;
axillars very pale sulphur-yellow; under wing-coverts white with dusky
bases; quills dusky below, ashy whitish along the edge of the inner
web. 'Bill brown, with the point blackish and the lower mandible
whitish; feet flesh-color; iris chestnut-brown.' (David.) Length,
120; culmen, 11.4; wing, 68.5; tail, 54.6; tarsus, 19.
"Adult male in winter plumage.--Only differs from the summer plumage
in being more olive-yellow on the head and neck, some of the feathers
of the crown and hind neck being tipped with rufous-brown.
"Adult female.--Rather browner on the head than the male and not
so ashy; no black on the face or chin; ear-coverts brown, streaked
with yellowish shaft-lines; lores, eyelid, and an indistinct eyebrow
yellowish buff; a broad cheek-stripe of pale sulphur-yellow widening
out on the side of the neck; throat and under surface of body
pale sulphur-yellow, olive greenish on the throat and fore neck;
a distinct malar streak of dusky blackish spots; sides of body and
flanks reddish brown, streaked with black; lower abdomen and under
tail-coverts yellowish white.
"Old females in the breeding season become a little more ashy on the
head and neck. Young birds are always browner than the adults above,
and have a number of dusky spots on the throat; otherwise they greatly
resemble the old females. Young females (Mus. H. Seebohm) are pale
brown above, with less developed black centers on the mantle; the head
brown, washed with rufous and streaked with black; under surface dull
white, with only a slight tinge of sulphur-yellow on the abdomen and
axillars; the throat pale olive-yellow, browner on the fore neck and
chest, with brown shaft-lines. Young males in winter plumage resemble
the adult female, but seem to have more dusky spots on the throat,
which commences to become dusky olive in April, with blackish on the
chin. Some (probably of an earlier brood) have dusky olive throats
in November, but always show dusky spots." (Sharpe.)
The only known Philippine specimen of the black-faced bunting was
collected by Whitehead.