472 PLECTROPHANES LAPPONICA. 



those specimens, I have been obliged to have recourse to 

 American skins ; and as these were of the male in winter and 

 female in summer only, I have copied M. Temminck's charac- 

 ters for the rest. According to the noble and illustrious author 

 above named, and the celebrated Dr. Richardson, the Lapland 

 Lark-Buntings live in large flocks, and frequently intermingle 

 with Larks, with Alauda arvensis in Europe, and Alauda 

 alpestris in America, as well as several other birds of similar 

 habits. Their food consists chiefly of seeds of arctic or alpine 

 plants, especially of willows and Arbutus alpina. They breed 

 in marshy places, or moist meadows ; form their nest of dry 

 stalks of grass, lining it with hair or feathers ; and lay six or 

 seven eggs, of a yellowish colour, spotted with brown. 



This species is one of those that more evidently indicates 

 the many afiinities by which a particular bird is connected 

 with others of different genera. Its bill, considered w^ith re- 

 spect to external form, allies it to the Finches and Linnets ; 

 the knob on its palate evinces an alliance with the Buntings ; 

 its feet connects it with the Larks ; and these organs and its 

 w^ngs assign it an intimate relation to the Snowflake. As its 

 upper mandible is considerably larger and broader than that of 

 the bird just named, and the gape-line little deflected at the 

 base, some authors have referred it to the genus Fringilla. 

 Another, judging it to be neither Finch nor Bunting, forms of 

 it a genus apart, under the name of Passerina. The palatal 

 knob, however, is decisive as to its family, and the claws and 

 w^ngs present the peculiar characters of Plectrophanes, to 

 which it was first referred by Mr. Selby, although M. Tem- 

 minck had long before indicated its connection with the Snow- 

 flake, by placing these birds in a separate section of Einberiza. 



The form and habits of the Lark-Buntings shew that they 

 constitute the link which connects the Buntings, Finches, and 

 Larks. The latter birds are perhaps as much granivorous as 

 the former ; but owing to the circumstances already mentioned, 

 and their still greater affinity to the Pipits and Thrushes, I 

 have judged it expedient to remove them from the order of 

 Huskers, and bring them into connection with the genus An- 

 thus, which resembles them much more than they resemble 

 the Finches. 



