EM BERIZA. 123 
Genus EMBERIZA. 
The genus Emberiza was included by Linnzus in the twelfth edition of 
his ‘ Systema Natur,’ published in 1766 (i. p. 308). The Yellow Hammer 
(#. citrinella), being the Emberiza emberiza of Brisson, has every right to 
be regarded as the type, though some writers advocate the claims of the 
Corn-Bunting to that distinction. 
The Buntings may be distinguished by their gape-line (which is not 
straight, as in most birds, nor arched, as in Pyrrhula and Carpodacus, but 
has an angle in the centre) and by their having the palate furnished with 
a hard horny knob. The lower mandible is laterally compressed, so as to 
form a sort of anvil for this knob. The nostrils are partly hidden by 
short feathers, and the rictal bristles are almost obsolete. In a few of 
the species the hind claw is elongated something like that of a Lark or a 
Pipit. 
This genus contains about forty species, which are distributed throughout 
the Palearctic and Nearctic Regions. By far the greatest number of 
species are confined to the Palarctic Region, many of which extend 
their range southwards into the Oriental Region in winter. In this latter 
region one or two species breed at high elevations. Several of the 
Nearctic species also wander southwards to the Neotropical Region in 
winter. Eighteen species are found in the Western Palearctic Region, of 
which four are resident in, and six accidental stragglers to, the British 
Islands. Of these six accidental stragglers no less than four are from the 
Arctic regions of Europe and Asia, one breeds throughout the greater 
part of Europe, and one is confined during the breeding-season to South- 
eastern Europe. 
The Buntings frequent open places, in this respect showing more affinity 
to the Larks than the true Finches. Their haunts are fields, commons, 
bare mountain-sides, cultivated districts, marshy places, and moors. In 
winter they are more or less gregarious. Their flight is strong and slightly 
undulating, and on the ground they both hop andrun. Their powers of 
song are not very great, and their call-notes are usually harsh and 
monotonous. Several of the species sing whilst flying. Their food con- 
sists principally of seeds; but this diet is varied in summer with insects 
and in autumn with fruit. The nests are cup-shaped, and placed either 
in a depression on the ground beneath a tuft of herbage or a bush, in a 
Hush or tree, or in holes and crevices amongst rocks, walls, or drift-wood ; 
