BRITISH BIRDS. 



PA8SERES. EMBERJZJD^K. 



. 



PLECTROPHANES NIVALIS (Linnaeus*). 

 THE SNOW-BUNTING. 



Plectrophanes nivalis. 



PLECTROPHANES, B. Meyer \. Bill hard, conical and short; the upper man- 

 dible narrower than the lower, the edges of both inflected and those of the 

 latter sinuated ; the palate furnished with a projecting bony knob. Nostrils 

 oval, basal and placed somewhat near the culmen, nearly hidden by small 

 feathers. Gape angular. Wings long and pointed : first primary finely attenu- 

 ated and so small as to seem wanting ; second and third nearly equal and the 

 longest in the wing, but the fourth is considerably longer than the fifth. Tail 



* Embenza nivalis, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 308 (1766). 

 t Zusiitze und Berichtigungen zu Meyers und Wolfs Taschenbuch der deutschen 

 Vogelkunde, p. 56 (1822). 



VOL. IT. B 



