466 EMBERIZID^E. 



THE LAPLAND BUNTING, though a native, as its name 

 imports, of the most northern parts of Europe, and even of 

 the Arctic Regions, has yet been taken on five 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. M.P. passing afterwards, with his 

 whole collection, by gift, to the Museum of the Zoological 

 Society. The second was taken on the downs near Brigh- 

 ton, and is in my own collection. The third was taken a 

 few miles north of London, and its capture made known by 

 Mr. Gould. The fourth, caught near Preston in Lanca- 

 shire, 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 ex- 

 hibited the plumage of the least conspicuous bird in the 

 back ground of the plate here given. 



On the last day of September 1844, a fine adult male 

 was caught in a net with some larks on the downs near 

 Brighton : this specimen I have seen in the possession of 

 Mr. William Borrer, jun. ; it is in the plumage of summer 

 as represented in the lower figure, but undergoing a slight 

 change from the advance of the season. 



Systematic writers in ornithology at the present day ap- 

 pear to agree that the natural situation of the species of 

 the genus Plectrophanes of Meyer, is between the true Larks 

 and the true Buntings : with several characters by which 

 they are allied to the Buntings, the difference in the struc- 

 ture 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 five examples 

 here recorded were caught in this country. M. Temminck, 

 it will be observed by the quotation at the head of this 



