PASSERINE. 193 



recorded was obtained in Leadenhall market among larks 

 that had been sent from Cambridgeshire ; the second was 

 caught near Brighton ; the third was taken near London in 

 1828 ; the fourth in 1833, near Preston. In its winter nights 

 it often associates with Larks. According to Dr Richardson 

 it feeds on the seeds of various plants, breeds in marshy places 

 or moist meadows, forms its nest of dry stalks of grass, lining 

 it with hair or feathers, and lays six or seven eggs, of a yel- 

 lowish colour, spotted with brown. 



Lapland Finch. 



Fringilla lapponica, Linn. Syst, Nat. i. 317. Emberiza cal- 

 Carata, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. i. 322. Plectrophanes lappo- 

 nica, Lapland Lark-Bunting, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 469. 



FAMILY XXIV. PASSERINE. PASSERINE 

 BIRDS, OR SPARROWS. 



The Passerinee differ little from the Emberizinse, un- 

 less in the form of the bill, and in having the upper man- 

 dible broad and concave, in place of being narrow and 

 furnished with a prominent knob. The two families pass 

 insensibly into each other by means of exotic species, al- 

 though the gradations are not exhibited by the few that 

 occur in Britain. The Passerinse are all of small size, 

 with the body compact, the neck short, the head large. 

 Bill short, stout, conical, with the sides convex ; upper 

 mandible of about the same breadth as the lower, with 

 the dorsal outline straight or convex, the edges overlap- 

 ping, with a slight sinus near the tip, which is sharp and 

 slightly deflected ; lower mandible with the angle short 

 and rounded, the dorsal line straight or slightly convex, 

 the edges inflected, the tip acute. Both mandibles in- 

 ternally concave, the upper generally with three longitu- 

 dinal elevated lines ; tongue sagittate at the base, very 

 narrow, involute, with the tip horny and bifid, or termi- 

 nated by^a pencil of short bristles ; oesophagus dilated on 

 the middle of the neck into a crop lying on the left side ; 

 proventriculus oblong ; stomach roundish, with strong 



K 



