2 EMBERIZID/E. 



moderate and slightly forked. Tarsus scutellate in front, covered at the sides 

 with an undivided plate, forming a sharp ridge behind, about as long as the 

 middle toe. Claws but slightly curved, that of the hind toe elongated. 



WHATEVER differences of opinion once existed, it has 

 long since been ascertained that the Mountain-, the Tawny 

 and the Snow-Bunting of old authors, are only names for 

 one and the same species in different states of plumage ; but 

 to whom belongs the credit of establishing this fact beyond 

 dispute is by no means clear. Linnaeus indeed never fal- 

 tered in his opinion of their identity, though Pennant and, 

 after him, Latham for some time, took the contrary view. 

 Turton, in 1807, was perhaps the first British naturalist who 

 united the three supposed species into one. This was also done 

 on the continent by Wolf in 1810, by Temminck in 1815 and 

 by Koch in 1816 ; but both at home and abroad they were 

 regarded as distinct by others, and Montagu maintained to 

 the last the separation of Emberiza montana, though allow- 

 ing that E. mustelina and E. nivalis might be specifically 

 identified, on the evidence apparently of his friend Foljambe, 

 an excellent practical ornithologist, who in a letter to him 

 said " a few years ago, I shot more than forty from the same 

 flock, during severe weather in the month of January, hardly 

 any two of which exhibited precisely the same plumage, but 

 varied from the perfect Tawny to the Snow-Bunting in its 

 whitest state ; the feathers of those of the intermediate 

 state being more or less charged with white." 



The Snow-Bunting or Snow-flake is generally considered 

 only a winter-visitor to this country, and to the other tem- 

 perate parts of Europe ; large flocks, consisting chiefly of 

 the young birds of the year, bred in high northern latitudes, 

 annually visiting our islands in autumn. But there is little 

 doubt that some pairs breed every summer in the Highlands 

 of Scotland, while the nest and eggs have been several times 

 found in Unst the most northerly of the Shetlands. Pen- 

 nant, during one of his tours in Scotland, learnt that they 

 bred on the summit of the highest hills in the same places 

 as the Ptarmigan, especially naming Invercauld, where he 

 had one shot for him on August 4th ; and Thornton mentions 



