Buntings 843 



almost every island has its peculiar form or set of forms. In the first genus 

 (Platyspiza) the color is dull olivaceous above and whitish streaked with dusky 

 below, the adult males with head, neck, and chest black. In Camarhynchus 

 the species are similar in coloration to the last, though in some the males are 

 without any black ; but the bill is very different, being much more compressed. 

 Geospiza is also similar to the first, but the adult males are almost entirely black, 

 and the bill is extremely variable in relative length, depth, and width. Snod- 

 grass has recently investigated their food to ascertain if there is any relation 

 between it and the size and shape of the bill, but the results are entirely negative, 

 and we must apparently look elsewhere for the explanation of the variation. 

 The species of this genus are very close together. 



Buntings. The last of the three groups or subfamilies into which Dr. 

 Sharpe and others have divided the Fringillida embraces a very large number 

 of birds known collectively as Buntings, which are distinguished principally 

 by the fact that the conical and sharply pointed bill does not have the edges 

 of the two mandibles in contact throughout their length, but forming an angle 

 about midway. There is also a more or less pronounced hard, horny process or 

 knob on the palate. But there are grave differences among ornithologists as 

 to the validity of this group, Dr. Sharpe himself acknowledging that it is more 

 or less artificial ; while Mr. Ridgway was not able to recognize it at all, and has 

 dispersed the American forms included in it among the typical Finches. It 

 follows from this that no apparently thoroughly satisfactory arrangement of the 

 Fringillida has been thus far proposed, nor can there be until the anatomy 

 of the many forms is better known. Without attempting to sift the subject 

 as it perhaps deserves, we will simply consider a few of the true Buntings (Em- 

 beriza), of which there are upward of forty species, all natives of the Old World. 

 They agree essentially in habits and appearance with the ordinary conception 

 of a Sparrow, being small, rather brightly colored birds of more or less gre- 

 garious nature, frequenting grain-fields, waste lands, and grassy tracts of country, 

 and feeding largely on grain and seeds of all kinds. 



Corn Bunting. One of the largest species is the Corn Bunting (E. miliaria), 

 which attains a length of seven and a half inches, and occurs throughout Europe 

 generally, from southern Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and east to the Urals, 

 retiring in part to northern Africa in winter. In addition to its large size, it 

 has the upper parts grayish brown striped with blackish brown, and the lower 

 parts white spotted and streaked with blackish. It is a quiet, not to say dull, 

 clumsy bird of very sedentary habits, frequenting grain-fields, meadows, com- 

 mons, and other open places, and loves to perch on some weed stalk, bush, or 

 telegraph wire, where it will remain motionless for an hour at a time, giving 

 voice to its monotonous and rather uninteresting song. During the breeding 

 season it is scattered about in pairs', but in the autumn it congregates in small 

 flocks, and in company with other species finds a livelihood in stubble fields, 

 stockyards, and about farm buildings. In the more northern portions of its 

 habitat it is partially migratory, but in England, for instance, it is considered 

 a resident species, and is one of the latest to set about household cares, usually 



