THE BUNTINGS. 45 



of the body, more appropriate to the conductor of a band, than one of 

 the performers. 



Inasmuch as the Brazilians think it worth while to catch and cage 

 C. icf erica, it is safe to conclude that there are good features in its 

 song; for there is nothing startlingly attractive in its plumage to make 

 it worth keeping as a pet, in a land where the most gorgeously 

 coloured Tanagers could be as easily provided for. 



Dr. Russ' experience of this species seems to have been similar 

 to mine; he says: "In 1877 I received a pair from Mr. H. Moller, 

 in Hamburg, but they soon died.* Since 1880 now and again a single 

 pair has been imported." He informs us, however, that Mr. Kerfack, 

 of Berlin, bred this species in 1883 in his bird-room. 



The illustration of the male is taken from a skin of a bird 

 formerly living in the author's collection. 



THE BUNTINGS. 



EMBERIZIN^. 



MR. SEEBOHM gives the following characters for distinguishing 

 the Buntings from other Finches : " Their gape-line is not 

 straight, as in most birds, nor arched as in Pyrrhula and Carpodacus, 

 but as an angle in the centre, 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." 



' Their flight is strong and undulating, and on the ground they 

 both hop and run." This last statement, however true of European 



* The most literal translation of the German " ging ein " would be the slang)- English 

 equivalent " caved in." 



