The Zoologist — November, 1867. 971 



Tail 2 inches 9 lines ; feathers long and 

 lanceolate, giving the tail a forked 

 appearance when half closed ; outer 

 web of outside tail-feather white. 



Tarsus stout, 1 inch, dark brown ; toes 

 1 inch, dark brown; claws black; hind 

 claw long, but variable. 



Tail 2 inches 2 lines ; feathers short and 

 ovate, giving tail square appearance 

 when half closed : outer weh of outside 

 tail-feather brownish black, with very 



narrow white margin. 



Tarsus slender, 10 lines, light brown; 

 toes 10 lines, light brown; hind claw 

 somewhat shorter. 



The Lapland burning may be considered as the connecting link 

 between the larks and buntings. In its plumage generally and in the 

 length of the hind claw it resembles the larks. Its habits are also 

 similar to theirs, living on the ground and seldom perching; it walks 

 like the larks, and does not hop like the true buntings. As a rule, the 

 buntings are all so very unlike each other that it would be impossible 

 to confound them. 



Ctrl and Yellow Bunting. — The cirl bunting and the yellow bunting 

 are perhaps the two which most resemble each other, but the male of 

 the former may always be known from the latter by its black throat. 



Tlie Greater Spotted and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers. — Some 

 doubt has, not unreasonably, been expressed as to the claim which 

 Picus medius has to rank as a British bird, and with a view to this 

 question, and for the benefit of those who may have opportunities of 

 studying our woodpeckers, and who are not acquainted with Picus 

 medius, it will be well to point out the respects in which this species 

 differs from Picus major. Apart from its smaller size and more slender 

 bill and legs, P. medius has no black on the crown of the head, but 

 the red (which in P. major is confined to the occiput) in this bird 

 extends over the entire crown to the forehead, which is grayish white. 

 In P. major there is a black moustache running from the base of the 

 bill on either side below the cheeks and terminating in an irregular 

 patch of black ; but in P. medius the black patch only on each side of 

 the neck is seen, the moustache being absent. In P. major the second 

 feather in the wing is half an inch shorter than the third, and has no 

 white spots upon its outer web ; in P. medius the second feather is a 

 quarter of an inch longer than the third, and its outer web has white 

 spots at regular intervals to the tip, which is also white. The red 

 colour on the under tail-coverts, although not so bright in P. medius 

 as in P. major, extends much higher towards the breast in the former, 

 and the sides of the breast and flanks, which in P. major are of a uni- 

 form stone-white colour, are in P. medius striated, — that is to say, that 



