Cretzschmar's Bunting
Emberiza caesia Cretzschmar, 1827
Photo © Phil Woollen - Fair Isle, 2 May 2014
STATUS
Eurasia. Monotypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally during the period covered (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1875 Sussex Brighton, immature, caught, no date.
(Lord Clifton, Zoologist 1879: 180).
[Walpole-Bond, 1938; Not in BOU, 1971].
History Lord Clifton (1879) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. III. p. 180, says: 'In 1875 a bunting was caught at Brighton which I have hardly any doubt was an immature Emberiza caesia. It is true that some ornithologists pronounced it to be a "melanism of the Yellowhammer"; but this was quite contrary to the evidence, for, in the first place, it had not the strong beak of the Yellowhammer. The upper plumage generally was dark reddish brown, varied with blackish; rump rufous; breast tawny. The only bird that would come near the description would be Emberiza cia, but the white wing bars were wanting. I afterwards found an adult Emberiza caesia at Swaysland's, which he had taken to be a variety of the Ortolan. He believes that this was caught in the neighbourhood, but is not sure. I may observe that as E. caesia has occurred in Heligoland, it is quite as likely to be met with at Brighton as any other eastern species that have occurred there, such as Emberiza rustica and pusilla, Turdus atrogularis, &c.'
Not accepted locally as the record was placed in square brackets (Walpole-Bond 1938 (1): 176-177).
Comment Neither Lord Clifton or Swaysland were competent ornithologists.
