L-IPLAND LONGSPUR. 255 



nds lately published a figure of the young in the Linnean Transactions, 

 and it will also, Tiro presume, appear in his splendid work, which yields 

 to none but Naumann's, Wolf's, and Wilson's, in point of accuracy and 

 character. That recorded by him appears to be the first instance of an 

 individual having been found in Britain. The species is common in the 

 hilly districts of eastern Europe, but is chiefly confined within the Polar 

 Circle, though found abundantly in all the northern mountainous dis- 

 tricts of Europe and Asia, particularly Siberia and Lapland. It is 

 sometimes known to descend in autumn and winter, and, though very 

 rarely, in spring, either singly and astray, or in imm'ense clouds, into 

 the north and middle of Germany. Great numbers were seen in the 

 neighborhood of Frankfort on the Maine, in the middle of November, 

 1821. In France they are restricted to the loftiest and most inaccessi- 

 ble mountains, where they are very rare,- so much so, that in those of 

 the Vosges, Gerardin only met with a single specimen after six years' 

 researches ; though more frequent in the mountains of Dauphin^. 

 They are common during summer in Arctic America ; and are found at 

 Hudson's Bay, in winter, not appearing before November: near the 

 Severn river they haunt the cedar-trees, upon whose berries they feed 

 exclusively. These birds live in large flocks, and are of so social a dis- 

 position, that when separated from their own species, or when in small 

 parties, they always join company with the common Lark of Europe ; 

 or in America, with some of the difierent Snow-birds. They feed 

 chiefly on seeds, especially of the dwarf willows growing in frozen and 

 mountainous countries^, but occasionally also on leaves, grass, and 

 insects. They breed on small hillocks, in open marshy fields ; the nest 

 is loosely constructed with moss and grasses, lined with a few feathers. 

 The female lays five or six oblong eggs, yellowish rusty, somewhat 

 clouded with brown. The Lapland Longspur, like the Larks, never 

 sings but suspended aloft in the air, at which time it utters a few agree- 

 able and melodious notes. 



As may be seen by the synonymes at the head of this article, this bird 

 has been condemned by nomenclators to fluctuate between different 

 genera. But between Fringilla and Umberiza it is not difiicult to de- 

 cide, as it possesses all the characters of the latter in an eminent degree, 

 even more so than its near relative the Snow-Bunting, which has never 

 been misplaced. It has even the palatine knob of Emheriza, and much 

 more distincly marked than in the Snow-Bunting [Emheriza nivalis). It 

 has been erroneously placed in Fringilla, merely on account of its bill 

 being somewhat wider and more conic. 



Meyer has lately proposed for the two just mentioned nearly allied 

 species, a new genus under the name Plectrophanes (corresponding to 

 the English name we have used) : this we have adopted as a sub-genus, 

 and are almost inclined to admit as an independent genus, being well 



