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Genus PLECTEOPHANES. 



Emberiza apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 308 (1766). 

 Plectrophanes, Meyer, Taschenb. deutsch. Vogelk. i. p. 187 (1810). 

 Passer apud Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 18 (1811). 

 Hortulanus apud Leach, Syst. Cat. M. & B. Brit. Mus. p. 16 (1816). 

 Passerina apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. xxv. p. 8 (1817). 

 Centhrophanes apud Kaup, Naturl. Syst. p. 158 (1829). 



The species included in this group, though closely allied to the true Buntings, differ so far in 

 the form of the wing, in having a nearly straight elongated hind claw, and in their habits, that 

 they are fully deserving of generic rank. The genus Plectrophanes, which leads off from the 

 Buntings to the Larks, is represented in the Palsearctic and Nearctic Regions, two species 

 inhabiting the Western Palaearctic Region. 



In habits they differ from the true Buntings, inasmuch as they perch on trees and bushes 

 much less frequently than those birds do, but frequent open places, not groves or gardens, 

 running about like Larks, not hopping like true Buntings. In their flight, also, they resemble 

 the Larks, and are tolerably good songsters, uttering their song when in the air, hovering on the 

 wing. They feed on seeds of various kinds, and insects, but chiefly on the former. They build 

 a somewhat carelessly constructed cup-shaped nest of straws and grass-bents, which they line 

 with feathers, and sometimes with hair, and deposit either dull white eggs blotched and splashed 

 with lilac and deep brownish red, or else resembling those of the Meadow-Pipit or Reed-Bunting. 



Plectrophanes nivalis, the type of the genus, has the bill short, strong, conical, the upper 

 mandible narrower than the lower, the gape-line ascending obliquely, then direct; palate 

 furnished with a small hard knob ; nostrils oval, basal, nearly hidden by projecting feathers ; 

 wings long, pointed, the first quill obsolete, the second longest ; tail moderate, slightly forked ; 

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

 slightly arched, laterally grooved, acute, the hind claw longer than the toe; plumage blended. 



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