EMBERIZA. 123 



Genus EMBERIZA. 



The genus Emberiza was included by Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of 

 his ' Systema Naturse/ published in 1766 (i. p. 308). The Yellow Hammer 

 {E. citrinella) , being the Emberiza emberiza of Brisson^ has every right to 

 be regarded as the type, though some writers advocate the claims of the 

 Corn-Bunting to that distinction. 



The Buntings may be distinguished by their gape-line (which is not 

 straight, as in most birds, nor arched, as in Pyrrhula and Carpodacus, but 

 has an angle in the centre) and by their having the palate furnished with 

 a hard horny knob. The lower mandible is laterally compressed, so as to 

 form a sort of anvil for this knob. The nostrils are partly hidden by 

 short feathers, and the rictal bristles are almost obsolete. In a few of 

 the species the hind claw is elongated something like that of a Lark or a 

 Pipit. 



This genus contains about forty species, which are distributed throughout 

 the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions. By far the greatest number of 

 species are confined to the Palaearctic Region, many of which extend 

 tlieir range southwards into the Oriental Region in winter. In this latter 

 region one or two species breed at high elevations. Several of the 

 Nearctic species also wander southwards to the Neotropical Region in 

 winter. Eighteen species are found in the Western Palaearctic Region, of 

 which four are resident in, and six accidental stragglers to, the British 

 Islands. Of these six accidental stragglers no less than four are from the 

 Arctic regions of Europe and Asia, one breeds throughout the greater 

 part of Europe, and one is confined during the breeding-season to South- 

 eastern Europe. 



The Buntings frequent open places, in this respect showing more affinity 

 to the Larks than the true Finches. Their haunts are fields, commons, 

 bare mountain -sides, cultivated districts, marshy places, and moors. In 

 winter they are more or less gregarious. Their flight is strong and slightly 

 undulating, and on the ground they both hop and run. Their powers of 

 song are not very great, and their call-notes are usually harsh and 

 monotonous. Several of the species sing whilst flying. Their food con- 

 sists principally of seeds ; but this diet is varied in summer with insects 

 and in autumn with fruit. The nests are cup-shaped, and placed either 

 in a depression on the ground beneath a tuft of herbage or a bush, in a 

 bush or tree, or in holes and crevices amongst rocks, walls, or drift-wood ; 



