148 PINE BUNTING. 



egg is from my own collection: it was taken in Siberia, and was sent 

 to me by M. Verreaux, through Mr. Dresser. 



It has also been figured by S. G. Gmelin, Nov. Comm. Acad. Pet., 

 pi. 23, fig. 3; Lepechin, Ibid, pi. 25, fig. 2; Gould, B. of E., pi. 104; 

 Bonaparte, in Revue de Zoologie, for April, 1857, (young male;) 

 Jaubert and Barthelemy la Pommeraye, in the Richesses Ornitholo- 

 giques, male and female; Dresser, Birds of Europe, male and female. 

 I am, however, sorry to see that Mr. Dresser has, upon the slightest 

 possible grounds, altered a name which has been in constant use for 

 nearly a hundred years. It appears that S. G. Gmelin gave the name 

 of leucocephala to this bird (in the paper above quoted) two years 

 before Pallas assigned to it that of "pithyornus" Lamarck, in his 

 note in the French edition of Pallas's "Voyages de P Empire de 

 Russie," vol. viii., p. 60, refers to this notice of S. G. Gmelin, but he 

 gives precedence to the diagnosis of J. F. Gmelin, in his edition of 

 the Natural System, i., p. 875. Pallas, who was travelling about the 

 remote parts of Russia, knew nothing of S. G. Gmelin's paper, and 

 therefore his name of pithyornus, which has been used ever since, 

 ought not to be displaced. 



