EMBERIZIDE. 157 
with ash-grey and tile-red; and others, he says, are 
still fuller in tint, with spots of crimson or maroon, 
intermixed with brown. 
Family EMBERrizip&. 
The Buntings, the family now under considera- 
tion, is not very numerous in variety of species, 
there being only eight recognized as British, five of 
which I shall be able to include in these notices as 
Somersetshire birds. 
Snow Buntine, Plectrophanes nivalis. The Snow 
Bunting has been shot at Weston-super-Mare,* and 
probably at many other places in the county, espe- 
cially in the autumn or tawny plumage, and Mon- 
tagu speaks \of having received several specimens of 
both the Mountain and the Tawny Bunting from 
Somersetshire. The Mountain and the Tawny 
Bunting of Montagu and other older authors have 
now been proved to be the Snow Bunting in dif- 
ferent states of plumage: Bewick, although he gives 
the Tawny as a distinct species from the Snow 
Bunting, considers that and the Mountain Bunting 
identical: these doubts and mistakes have arisen 
from the great variation of plumage in this bird at 
* See ‘ Proceedings of Somersetshire Archeological and 
Natural-History Society’ for 1851. 
P 
