Subject: Re. Bunting Alert!!
Date: Sep 03 21:44:30 1995
From: Jack Bowling - jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca


Ronald Orenstein asks re. mystery bunting:

>Any chance whatever that this could have been a Grey Bunting?

<cut>

I dropped this one out of the finalists rather quickly, Ronald, due
mainly to the fact that Gray Bunting does not have *any* white in the
tail and it has a bigger two-tone bill which I definitely did not see.

<cut>

>Note that the Japanese guide shows the female with an all-rufous tail, but
>no one else does, so I don't know how reliable this illustration is.

Ah, yes. How can one put this delicately. The Japanese guide you speak
of is not always up to the task of depicting birds realistically. I
speak from experience using this both offshore and onshore Japan. I
would not count on IDing a bird concretely by using "Birds of Japan",
at least the 1983 version. Actually, when I want a good laugh, I turn to
the gull plates and try to figure out what they were trying to draw
without looking at the text!

>In fact, the illustrations I have of this in different books differ so from
>each other that I remain somewhat confused as to what a female Grey looks
>like, and I've seen one!

And I couldn't shed any light on that subject either!! Thanks for the
input.

- Jack





Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
CANADA
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca