EMBERIZIIXE. 157 



with ash-grey and tile -red ; and others, he says, are 

 still fuller in tint, with spots of crimson or maroon, 

 intermixed with brown. 



Family EMBEBIZID.E. 



The Buntings, the family now under considera- 

 tion, is not very numerous in variety of species, 

 there being only eight recognized as British, five of 

 which I shall be able to include in these notices as 

 Somersetshire birds. 



SNOW BUNTING, Plectrophanes nivalis. The Snow 

 Bunting has been shot at Weston- super-Mare,* and 

 proba,bly at many other places in the county, espe- 

 cially in the autumn or tawny plumage, and Mon- 

 tagu speaks of having received several specimens of 

 both the Mountain and the Tawny Bunting from 

 Somersetshire. The Mountain and the Tawny 

 Bunting of Montagu and other older authors have 

 now been proved to be the Snow Bunting in dif- 

 ferent states of plumage : Bewick, although he gives 

 the Tawny as a distinct species from the Snow 

 Bunting, considers that and the Mountain Bunting 

 identical: these doubts and mistakes have arisen 

 from the great variation of plumage in this bird at 



* See ' Proceedings of Somersetshire Archaeological and 

 Natural-History Society' for 1851. 



