131 PASSE RES. 



whicli arc undistinguisliablo from examples from Japan. It is abso- 

 lutely impossible to regard tlie two forms as specifically distinct, and 

 it is quite as absurd to place them in different genera as it would be 

 to separate the Siberian Nutcracker from the Japanese Nutcracker 

 on the same grounds. In the dark ages of Ornithology there was a 

 superstition that a variation in the shape of tlie bill was necessarily 

 a generic character, but no student of Darwin^s works can do other- 

 A> ise than smile at such a theory. 



113. EMBERIZA RUSTICA. 

 (RUSTIC BUNTING.) 



Emkriza ruatica, Pallas, Reise Russ. Reicbs, iii. p. G98 (1770). 



The Rustic Bunting diff'ers from every other Bunting known to 

 occur in Japan in having the breast and flanks broadly streaked with 

 rich chestnut. 



Figures : Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 58 

 (male adult and immature) ; Dresser, Birds of Europe, iv. pi. 219 

 (male and female). 



The Rustic Bunting breeds in Yezzo and winters in the more 

 southerly of the Japanese Islands (Blakiston and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, 

 p. 2 13) . There is an exanii)le in the Swinhoe collection from Ilako- 

 dadi (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1874, p. 101); and there is one in the Paris 

 Museum procured near Aomori, in the north of Hondo, by I'Abbe 

 Fauire. There are five examples in the Pryer collection from the 

 neighbourhood of Yokohama. 



The range of the Rustic Bunting during the breeding-season 

 extends across the Arctic regions from Lajjland to Kamtschatka. Its 

 winter-quarters appear to be confined to China. It can only be 

 rcKarded as an accidental visitor to the British Islands. 



114. EMBERIZA FUCATA. 



(GREY-HEADED BUNTING.) 



Emberizu fucata, Pallas, Roise Russ. Reichs, iii. p. G98 (1770). 



The Grey-licadcd Bunting difl'ers from all the other Buntings 

 which are known to occur in Japan in liaving the tliroat (white in 

 the male and bull" in the female) surrounded i)y bold black streaks. 



