LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 463 



shoulders of the wing yellow. Wings dusky-brown, edged with 

 paler ; lesser coverts and whole shoulder of the wing bright bay. 

 Belly and vent dull white. Bill bluish, dusky above. Legs and 

 feet light brown. Iris hazel. 



Subgenus. — Plectrophanes. Bonap. 



In these the hind nail is long and sometimes almost straight. The 

 tubercle of the palate, not very conspicuous. First and second pri- 

 maries longest. — Though they moult only annually, the plumage 

 assumes a difference from age and exposure, as the tips of the feath- 

 ers wear away. — They live in open countries, plains, and mountains, 

 in desert regions, and never seek the shelter of the thicket or the 

 forest ; they likewise, in common with Larks, which they resemble 

 in habits, and the length of the hind nail, run with rapidity. 



LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 



(Emberiza lapponica, Nilsson. Bonap. Am. Orn. ii. p. 1. pi. 13. 

 fig. 1. [male.] fig. 2. [young female.] 



Sp. Charact. — Quills black ; 2 outer tail-feathers brownish-black, 

 with a white spot at tip ; hind nail very long, straight. — Adult 

 male, head and breast black ; beneath white ; neck above bright 

 rufous. — Male in winter, /emaZe and young, blackish skirted with 

 rufous, beneath white. 



This species generally inhabits the desolate arctic re- 

 gions of both continents. In the United States a few 

 stragglers from the greater body show themselves in win- 

 ter in the remote and unsettled parts of Maine, Michigan, 

 and the North-Western Territory. Large flocks also at 

 times enter the Union, and contrary to their usual prac- 

 tice of resting and living wholly on the ground, occa- 

 sionally alight on trees. In Europe, at the commence- 

 ment of the inclement season, they penetrate into Ger- 

 many, France, England and Switzerland, but in all these 

 countries the old birds are never seen. Flocks like 

 clouds descend sometimes into the north and middle of 

 Germany in the fall and winter, and rarely in the spring. 



