Subfamily EMBEEIZINjE. 149 



Genus EMBERIZA. 



Emberiza, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 308 (1766). 



Tanagra apud Giildenstadt, Nov. Com. Petrop. xix. p. 466 (1775). 



Fringilla apud P. L. S. Miiller, Natur. Syst. Suppl. p. 164 (1776). 



Xanthomis apud Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. p. 428 (1811). 



Passerina apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. xxv. p. 6 (1817). 



Cynchramus apud Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 974. 



Miliaria apud C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 127S. 



Cia apud Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 138 (1829). 



Citrinella apud Kaup, op. cit. p. 142 (1829). 



Spina apud Kaup, op. cit. p. 153 (1829). 



Orospina apud Kaup, ut supra (1829). 



Cirlus apud Kaup, ut supra (1829). 



Fringillaria apud Swainson, Classif. of B. ii. p. 290 (1837). 



Euspiza apud Bonaparte, Comp. List, p. 32 (1838). 



Schcenicola apud Bonaparte, Rev. Crit. p. 164 (1850). 



Glycispina apud Cabanis, Mus. Hein. i. p. 120 (1850-51). 



Gryptophaga apud Cabanis, torn. cit. p. 127 (1850-51). 



Hypocentor apud Cabanis, torn. cit. p. 123 (1850-51). 



Polymitra apud Cabanis, torn. cit. p. 129 (1850-51). 



Granitivora apud Bonaparte, Cat. Parzud. p. 5 (1856). 



Hortulanus apud Bonaparte, op. cit. p. 4 (1856). 



Buscarla apud Bonaparte, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1857, p. 163. 



Hylcespiza apud Blasius, List B. of Eur. p. 13 (1862). 



Spodiospina apud Von Heuglin, Orn. N.O.-Afr. i. p. 660 (1871). 



This genus, of which sixteen species occur within the limits of the Western Palaearctic Region, is 

 represented throughout the Palaearctic Region, being also met with in the Ethiopian and Oriental 

 Regions ; and, including Euspiza in the genus Emberiza, one species is also met with in the 

 Nearctic Region. 



The Buntings frequent open places, cultivated fields, groves, gardens, and also, to some 

 extent, desert places where there are bushes scattered about, marshy districts, &c. ; they have a 

 rapid, rather undulating flight, move on the ground with ease by a succession of short leaps, are 

 tolerably good songsters, and feed on seeds, fruits, insects, &c. They build cup-shaped nests of 

 straws, roots, twigs, &c, lined with fine roots, wool, hair, &c, which they place either on the 

 ground or in a bush or tree, or else in a hole in a wall ; and they deposit several reddish white, 

 greyish white, or bufly grey eggs marked with dark blotches and spots, and usually also with 

 tortuous or angular lines. 



Emberiza miliaria, the type of the genus, has the bill short, stout, conical, tapering to a 

 point, the upper mandible not wider than the lower, gape-line ascending obliquely for nearly 

 half its length and then direct ; the palate generally furnished with a projecting hard knob ; 

 nostrils oblong, placed in the fore part of the nasal depression ; wings moderately long, the first 

 three quills nearly equal, the second or third the longest ; tail moderately long, emarginate ; 

 legs strong, the tarsus covered in front with four large and three inferior scutellse ; claws arched, 

 compressed, acute, laterally grooved. 



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