BRITISH BIRDS. 



PASSE RES. 



EMBERIZIDjE. 



Plectkophanes nivalis (Linnaeus*). 



THE SNOW-BUNTING. 



Plectrophanes nivalis. 



PLECTROPtiANES, B. Meyer f. — Bill hard, conical and short; the upper man- 

 dible narrower than the lower, the edges of both inflected and those of the 

 latter sinuated ; the palate furnished with a projecting bony knob. Nostrils 

 oval, basal and placed somewhat near the culmen, nearly hidden by small 

 feathers. Gape angular. Wings long and pointed : fast primary finely attenu- 

 ated and so small as to seem wanting ; second and third nearly equal and the 

 longest in the wing, but the fourth is considerably longer than the fifth. Tail 



* Emberiza nivalis, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat, Ed. 12, i. p. 308 (1766). 

 t Zusiitze and Berichtigungen zu Meyers and Wolfs Tasehenbuch der deutschen 

 Vi.gelkunde, p. 56 (1822). 



VOL. II. B 



