182 Letters, Extracts, Announcements, S;c. 



Emberiza rustica, Pall., may be deemed worthy of a record 

 in the pages of 'The Ibis/ to which the late Mr. Gould 

 communicated the news of the bird's first appearance in 

 Britain, in 1867 ('The Ibis/^ 1869, p. 128). 



On the 17th of September last, after a lapse of fourteen 

 years, a bird of this species was shot on the sandhills of the 

 Yorkshire coast, near to the village of Easington, in Holder- 

 ness, by Mr. Townend, the schoolmaster. The specimen, 

 supposed by those who have examined it to be a female, was 

 given to Mr. P. W. Lawton, a local ornithologist, in whose 

 possession it remained unidentified until I visited Easington 

 on the 7th of October. 



I sent the bird to Professor Newton ; and it was exhibited 

 by him at the Meeting of the Zoological Society on the 

 15th o£ November. 



Yours &c., 



Wm. Eagle Clarke. 



The Generic Term Goniaphea. — Dr. Cones (Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, v. p. 98) says that he has carefully examined 

 Bowditch's ' Excursions in Madeira ' * without finding any 

 reference to the generic term " Goniaphea " — a name often 

 applied (as first suggested by G. R. Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 357) 

 to the Rose-breasted Grosbeak of North America. Having 

 lately had occasion to investigate this subject, I have suc- 

 ceeded in discovering the passage in Bowditch's work ; and, 

 in order to try and set this vexed question at rest, I trans- 

 scribe it. Speaking of an excursion from Funchal, in Madeira, 

 Bowditch says (p. 29), "I saw another and more curious 

 bird, but I doubt if it is a native of the island. The outline 

 of the beak most resembles that of the Widow-bird ( Vidua, 

 Cuv.) ; but the commissure is situated like that of the Grakle 

 {Gracula, Cuv.), immediately beneath the nostril, and forms 

 a much deeper angle ; it evidently belongs to the Conirostres 



* The full title of this worli is ' Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo 

 during the Autumn of 182-j, while on his Third Voyage to Africa,' by 

 the late T. Edward Bowditch. 4to. London : 1825. 



