280 INSESS. PLECTROPHANES. Snow-Bunting. 



It is only after patient scrutiny, and a long course of ob- 

 servation, that I have ventured to bring the synonyms of 

 the Snow, Tawny, and Mountain Bunting under the same 

 head, and to consider them as belonging to one species, vary- 

 ing only in colour and markings from a difference of age or 

 sex, or from the effect of season. In this view, I am happy 

 in possessing the powerful support of Mons, Temminck, who, 

 both as a scientific and practical naturalist, has laboured so 

 effectually in correcting the mistakes, and illustrating the 

 doubts that had long involved the history of many species. 



I am aware, that not a few authors, and, amongst the rest 

 Mr Montagu, (whose excellent works have contributed so 

 essentially towards a correct knowledge of British Ornitholo- 

 gy), hold a different opinion. But, if we examine into the 

 real ground of the evidence upon which they admit a speci- 

 fic distinction between these birds, we shall find it to rest 

 merely upon the difference of colour or markings, — a diffe- 

 rence so generally found to prevail between the young and 

 adult, and the male and female of the feathered tribe. The 

 appearance of the Snow-Bunting, in any of its changes, is 

 rare in the southern part of the kingdom, and few ornitho- 

 logists, therefore, have enjoyed opportunities of seeing it fre- 

 quently in a living and wild state, and of witnessing its ha- 

 bits and manners ; circumstances so essential towards form- 

 ing a correct judgment, where difference of plumage exists, 

 either between the sexes, or between the young and old 

 birds. Montagu indeed confesses, that the Snow-Flake 

 never came under his observation in Devonshire, and the 

 Tawny Bunting but seldom. In Northumberland, on the 

 contrary, it rarely happens that the three varieties are not 

 annually to be met with, during the winter months ; and I 

 have neglected no opportunity for observation on their 

 economy ; the result of which is evident in the opinion I 

 have here assumed. Their habits and modes of action are 

 precisely similar, they utter the same notes, and no diffe- 

 rence is perceptible in their anatomical structure ; to which 



