422 EMBERIZID.E. 



The Lapland Bunting, though a native, as its name 

 imports, of the most northern parts of Em'ope, and even of 

 the Arctic Regions, has yet been taken on four different 

 occasions in this country. The first was obtained in the London 

 market, and was for some years in the possession of N. A. 

 Vigors, Esq. ]\LP. passing afterwards, with hiswhole collection, 

 by gift, to the Museum of the Zoological Society. The second 

 was taken on the downs near Brighton, and is in my own 

 collection. The third was taken a few miles north of Lon- 

 don, and its capture made known by Mr. Gould. The 

 fourth, caught near Preston in Lancashire, was selected from 

 among a variety of other small birds in Manchester market, 

 and is now preserved in the Manchester Museum. Each of 

 these four examples exhibited the plumage of the least con- 

 spicuous bird in the back ground of the plate here given. 



Systematic writers in ornithology at the present day appear 

 to agree that the natural situation of the species of the genus 

 Plectrnphanes of Meyer, is between the true Larks and the 

 true Buntings : with several characters by which they ai-e 

 allied to the Buntings, the difference in the structure of the 

 wing, their straight hind claw, their terrestrial habits, and 

 their mode of progression on the ground by steps, and not 

 by hopping, indicate their connexion with the Larks, in the 

 nets with which all the- four examples here recorded were 

 caught in this country. M. Temminck, it will be observed 

 by the quotation at the head of this article, has not adopted 

 the genus Plectrophanes of Meyer, but has made two sections 

 of the Buntings, Emberiza, the second of which contains the 

 species ranged by others in the new genus Plectrophanes. 



Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says the Lapland Bunting 

 is found in Siberia, and near the Uralian chain. Towards 

 Avinter a few migrate southward as far as Switzerland. M. 

 Nccker in his paper in the Transactions of the Natural His- 

 tory Society of Geneva, mentions that this bird had been 

 taken occasionally with Larks in that vicinity. 



