black; the feet dusky; the toes and nails wax colour; the irides are dark brown. The frontlet is dull whitish gray, extending in a line over and beyond the eye; above this is a wide black line, confluent on the front, enclosing on the crown a wide longitudinal space of lemon yellow, erectile, slender feathers, with disunited webs; a dusky line passes through the eye, beneath which is a cinereous line, margined below by a narrow dusky one. The cervix and upper part of the body are dull olive green, tinged with yellowish on the rump. The whole inferior surface is whitish; the feathers, like those of the superior surface, being blackish-plumbeous at base. The lesser and middling wing coverts are dusky, margined with olive green, and tipped with whitish; the greater coverts are dusky, the outer ones immaculate, the inner ones have white tips, which form a band on the wings. The inferior wing coverts, and all the under surface of the wings, are more or less whitish gray; the primaries are dusky, with a narrow greenish yellow outer margin, wider at base, and attenuated to the tip, where it is obsolete. The secondaries are dusky; on the outer web, they are whitish near the base, then black, then with a greenish yellow margin, extending nearly to the tip; the margin of the inner web is white; the secondaries nearest to the body are, moreover, whitish on the terminal margin. The tail is emarginated; the feathers are dusky olive green on the margin of the outer web; the inner margins, with the exception of the two middle ones, are whitish.

Until their first moult, the young of both sexes are much like the adult female, except in being destitute of the yellow spot on the crest, which is greenish olive. In this state, however, they are not seen here, as they breed farther to the north, and moult before their arrival in the autumn.

GENUS XIII. — EMBERIZA, LINNEUS.

27. EMBERIZA LAPPONICA, WILSON. — LAPLAND LONGSpur. BONAPARTE, PLATE XIII. FIG. I. MALE; FIG. II. FEMALE.

THIS species, long since known to inhabit the desolate arctic regions of both continents, is now for the first time introduced into the Fauna of the United States; having been omitted both in our Synopsis and Catalogue. It is entitled to be ranked among the birds of this country, from the fact, that a few stragglers out of the numerous bands which descend in winter to comparatively warm latitudes, shew themselves almost every year in the higher unsettled parts of Maine, Michigan, and the northwestern territory. Even larger flocks are known not unfrequently to enter the territory of the Union; where, contrary to what is generally supposed, they are observed to alight on trees, as well as on the ground, notwithstanding their long and straight hind nail. We think it highly probable that some individuals, especially in their youth, visit in cold winters the mountainous districts of the Middle States; as they are well known in Europe to wander or stray to the more temperate climates of Germany, France, England, and especially Switzerland; in all which countries, however, the old birds are never seen. It is not extraordinary that they should never have been observed in the Atlantic States, as they are no where found in maritime countries.

No figure of the adult male in perfect plumage has hitherto, we believe, been given; and no representation at all is to be met with in the more generally accessible books, or collections of plates. Mr Selby has lately published a figure of the young in the Linnean Transactions, and it will also, we presume, appear in his splendid work, which yields to none but Naumann's, Wolf's, and Wilson's, in point of accuracy and character. That recorded by him appears to be the first instance of an individual having been found in Britain. The

species is common in the hilly districts of eastern Europe, but is chiefly confined within the Polar circle, though found abundantly in all the northern mountainous districts of Europe and Asia, particularly Siberia and Lapland. It is sometimes known to descend in autumn and winter, and, though very rarely, in spring, either singly and astray, or in immense clouds, into the north and middle of Germany. Great numbers were seen in the neighbourhood of Frankfort on the Main, in the middle of November, 1821. In France, they are restricted to the loftiest and most inaccessible mountains, where they are very rare; so much so, that in those of the Vosges, Gerardin only met with a single specimen after six years' researches, though more frequent in the mountains of Dauphiné. They are common during summer in Arctic America; and are found at Hudson's Bay in winter, not appearing before November: near the Severn river they haunt the cedar trees, upon whose berries they feed exclusively. These birds live in large flocks, and are of so social a disposition, that when separated from their own species, or when in small parties, they always join company with the common lark of Europe; or in America, with some of the different snow birds. They feed chiefly on seeds, especially of the dwarf willows growing in frozen and mountainous countries, but occasionally also on leaves, grass, and insects. They breed on small hillocks, in open marshy fields; the nest is loosely constructed with moss and grasses, lined with a few feathers. The female lays five or six oblong eggs, yellowish rusty, somewhat clouded with brown. The Lapland longspur, like the larks, never sings but suspended aloft in the air, at which time it utters a few agreeable and melodious notes.

As may be seen by the synonyms, this bird has been condemned by nomenclators to fluctuate between different genera. But between Fringilla and Emberiza it is not difficult to decide, as it possesses all the characters of the latter in an eminent degree, even more so than its near relative the snow bunting, which has

never been misplaced. It has even the palatine knob of Emberiza, and much more distinctly marked than in the snow bunting (Emberiza nivalis.) It has been erroneously placed in Fringilla, merely on account of its bill being somewhat wider and more conic.

Meyer has lately proposed for the two just mentioned nearly allied species, a new genus under the name Plectrophanes, (corresponding to the English name we have used.) This we have adopted as a subgenus, and are almost inclined to admit as an independent genus being well characterized both by form and habits. The two species of Plectrophanes, to which we apply the name of longspur, together with the buntings, are well distinguished from the finches by their upper mandible, contracted and narrower than the lower, their palatine tubercle, &c. From the typical Emberiza they differ remarkably by the length and straightness of their hind nail, and the form of their wings, which, owing to the first and second primaries being longest, are acute. In the true buntings, the first quill is shorter than the second and third, which are longest. This species, in all its changeable dresses, may at once be known by its straight and very long hind nail, which is twice as long as the toe. The bill is also stronger and longer than in the other species.

The longspurs are strictly Arctic birds, only descending in the most severe and snowy winters to less rigorous climates, and never to the temperate zone, except on the mountains. Hence they may with the greatest propriety be called snow birds. They frequent open countries, plains, and desert regions, never inhabiting forests. They run swiftly, advancing by successive steps like the larks, (which they resemble in habits, as well as in the form of their hind nail,) and not by hopping, like the buntings. The conformation of their wings also gives them superior powers of flight to their allied genera, the buntings and finches. Their moult appears to be double, and, notwithstanding Temminck's and my own statement to the contrary, they differ much in their summer and winter plumage. Owing to this,

the species have been thoughtlessly multiplied; there are in reality but two, the present, and snow bunting of Wilson.

The male Lapland longspur, in full breeding dress, is nearly seven inches long, and twelve and a quarter in extent; the bill is nearly half an inch long, yellow, blackish at the point; the irides are hazel, and the feet dusky; the head is thickly furnished with feathers; the forepart of the neck, throat, and the breast, are glossy black; the hind-head is of a fine reddish rusty; a white line arises from the base of the bill to the eye, behind which it becomes wider, descending on the sides of the neck somewhat round the breast; the belly and vent are white; the flanks posteriorly with long blackish streaks; the back and scapulars are brownish black, the feathers being skirted with rusty; the smaller wingcoverts are blackish, margined with white; the greater coverts margined with rufous, and white at tip, forming two white bands across the wings; the primaries are blackish, edged with white; secondaries emarginated at tip, dusky, edged with rusty; the wings when closed reach to three-fourths the tail; the tail is two and a half inches in length, rather forked, and of a blackish colour; the outer feather on each side with a white cuneiform spot; and the outer web almost entirely white; the second with a white cuneiform spot only. The hind nail is almost an inch long.

The adult female is somewhat smaller than the male. In spring, she has the top of the head, the shoulders, back, and wing-coverts brownish black, the feathers being edged with rusty; the sides of the head, blackish, intermixed with rusty; over the eyebrows a whitish line, as in the male, tinged with rusty; the nucha and rump are brownish rusty, with small black spots; the throat is white, encircled with brown; remaining inferior parts, white; wings and tail as in the other sex.

The male in autumn and winter has the bill brownish yellow; irides and feet, brownish. Head, black, varied with small spots of rusty; auriculars, partly encircled with black feathers; throat, yellowish white, finely