Catalogue of the Birds of Japan. 89 



Emberiza yessoensis. (Plate I. fig. 2.) 



" Schoenicola yessoensis, Swinh." Blak. et Pryer, Ibis, 1878, 

 p. 2i3. no. 263. 



This Bunting (of which I give a figure of an adult male 

 shot at Hakodate in April) appears to be an excellent species. 

 It was first described by Capt. Blakiston in ' The Ibis ' (1863, 

 p. 99) as ''Emberiza minor, Midd. apud Swinhoe." In 'The 

 Ibis' for 1874, p. 161, Swinhoe corrected the error which 

 he had induced Capt. Blakiston to make, and attempted to 

 do tardy justice to the discoverer and describer of this new 

 species by assigning to it the name Schcenicola yessoensis 

 originally given in Blakiston's MS. In all fairness this 

 species ought to stand as Emberiza yessoensis (Blakiston), 

 I have consulted divers ornithological experts, " learned in 

 the law," and I am most reluctantly compelled to indorse 

 their decision that, inasmuch as Swinhoe was the first person 

 who published the name yessoensis, this bird must stand as 

 Emberiza yessoensis (Swinhoe) . 



Upon the same plate is figured, under the name Emberiza 

 passerina, an adult male of the true Emberiza minor. I shot 

 the bird from which this figure was drawn in the valley of 

 the Yen-e-say, in East Siberia, in lat, QQ\°, on the 9th of 

 June, 1877. In ' The Ibis ' for 1878, p. 339, I have given 

 particulars of its captui'e under the name of E. polaris, 

 Midd. Since writing that account I have had leisure to 

 work out the subject further, and now add a full synonymy 

 of the species as far as I have been able to ascertain it. 



Emberiza passerina. (Plate I. fig. 1.) 



Emberiza passerina, Pallas, Itin. i. app. p. 456. no. 10 ; 

 Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 49 (1811). 



Emberiza schceniclus, var. /3, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. 

 p. 48 (1811). 



Cynchramus pallasi. Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. i. p. 130 

 (1850). 



Emberiza schceniclus, var. minor, Midd. Sib. Reise, ii. p. 144 

 (1851). 



Emberiza polaris, Midd. Sib. Reise, ii. p. 146 (1851). 



Emberiza canescens, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 62. 



