SKETCHES OP EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 273 



than in Pyrrhula. Tail moderate, and slightly forked. Its natu- 

 ral habitation is the Arctic circle, and the extensive pine-forests of 

 the north : its food, the seeds of the pine-cone, and wild berries. It 

 is merely an occasional visitant of Britain. An adult male and 

 female are the subjects of the plate before us. The female is admi- 

 rably figured at p. 262 of vol. ii. of Northern Zoology ; and the 

 male and female delineated, and described, by Wilson, and Bona- 

 parte, in vol. i. and iii. of Jardine's Edition of American Or nithologt/, 



Plate VI. — The Waxen Chatterer, — Bombycivora garrula.—^ 

 The genus Bombycivora, or Bombi^cilla, as now constituted, com- 

 prehends three species : the American Cedar-Bird, — B. Americanaj 

 vel Carolinensis ; the Red-winged Chatterer, — B. phcenicoptera, — 

 discovered, in Japan, by the ill-fated Siebold, and fiigured in Tem- 

 minck's Planches Coloriees ; and the beautiful subject of the pre- 

 sent plate, — Grand-Jaseur, Fr.y — Garrulo di Bohemia, It.^ — Euro- 

 paischer oder Rothlichgrauer Seidenschwantz, G., — an inhabitant 

 of the Arctic regions, and a rare visitant of the British islands. 

 The curious wax-like appendages, which ordinarily adorn the tips 

 of the secondary quills, and constitute one of the distinguishing cha- 

 racteristics of the genus, do not invariably exist. They are not re- 

 presented in Temminck's figure of B. phcenicoptera. 



Plate VII. — The Red-breasted IMerganser, — Mergus serrator, 

 — Harle huppe, Fn, — Mergo oca di lungo becco, //., — Langschnab- 

 eliger Sager, G. An elegant bird, finely illustrated by figures of 

 the adult male and female. The only one of the four British spe- 

 cies of the genus which lives throughout the year, and breeds, in 

 these islands. What connection the spurious Latin term, Serrator, 

 literally signifying, if it possess any meaning at all, a sawyer , can 

 have with this beautiful aquatic bird, we are quite at a loss to ima- 

 gine. It is high time all these revolting mummeries were swept, 

 with an indignant hand, from the fair face of science, which they 

 serve only to disfigure and obscure. The proper designation of this 

 hitherto misnamed bird is obviously Mergus rubecula. 



Plate VIII. contains figures of two species of Pyrgita, executed 

 with equal taste, and fidelity of outline and colouring. The First 

 is the Spanish Sparrow, P. Hispaniole?isis, — Gros-bec Espagnol, 

 Fr. ; — the Second, the Alpine, — P. Cisalpina, — Gros-bec Cisalpin, 

 Fr., — Passer volgare, of Italian ornithologists. In their external 

 characters, these birds closely resemble our domestic sparrow, of 

 which they are congeners ; but differ much in their haunts. Of 

 their habits and nidification, little is known. 



Plate IX. — A splendid drawing of the Long-legged Plover, or, 



VOL. IV. — NO. XVI. V 



