134 PASSEKES. 



which are undistinguishable from examples from Japan. It is abso- 

 lutely impossible to regard the two forms as specifically distinct, and 

 it is quite as absurd to place them in different genera as it would be 

 to separate the Siberian Nutcracker from the Japanese Nutcracker 

 on the same grounds. In the dark ages of Ornithology there was a 

 superstition that a variation in the shape of the bill was necessarily 

 a generic character, but no student of Darwin^s works can do other- 

 wise than smile at such a theory. 



113. EMBERIZA RUSTICA. 



(RUSTIC BUNTING.) 



Emberiza rustica, Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs, iii. p. 698 (1776). 



The Rustic Bunting differs from every other Bunting known to 

 occur in Japan in having the breast and flanks broadly streaked with 

 rich chestnut. 



Figures : Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 58 

 (male adult and immature) ; Dresser, Birds of Europe, iv. pi. 219 

 (male and female). 



The Rustic Bunting breeds in Yezzo and winters in the more 

 southerly of the Japanese Islands (Blakiston and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, 

 p. 243) . There is an example in the Swinhoe collection from Hako- 

 dadi (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1874, p. 161) ; and there is one in the Paris 

 Museum procured near Aomori, in the north of Hondo, by FAbbe 

 Fauire. There are five examples in the Pryer collection from the 

 neighbourhood of Yokohama. 



The range of the Rustic Bunting during the breeding-season 

 extends across the Arctic regions from Lapland to Kamtschatka. Its 

 winter- quarters appear to be confined to China. It can only be 

 regarded as an accidental visitor to the British Islands. 



114. EMBERIZA FUCATA. 

 (GREY-HEADED BUNTING.) 



Emberiza fucata, Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs, iii. p. 698 (1776). 



The Grey-headed Bunting differs from all the other Buntings 

 which are known to occur in Japan in having the throat (white in 

 the male and buff in the female) surrounded by bold black streaks. 



