RUSTIC J5UMTNG. 
57 
Pallas, lias never been taken ivitli certainty in Europe. 
Accept tbe assurance, etc., etc., 
C. R. Bree, Esq., M.D. J, H. Blasius.” 
I think it will be allowed that tbe above letter 
from so good an authority, clears up much of the 
confusion which has been occasioned in the natural 
history of the Eurorean Buntings, by mistaking slight 
differences of plumage for specific distinctions. 
From Dr. Schlegel, of Leyden, I have also received 
a long letter, from which I make the following extract: 
— “The question of the synonymes of the Asiatic Em- 
heriza killed in Euro^ie is a very difficult one. I think 
it is almost unpossible to state which species are meant 
by Buffon, but I believe that all the Asiatic EmherizcB 
caught in Southern Europe belong either to rustica or 
pusilla, two species breeding as you know in Northern 
Russia, and visiting in small numbers the east of Europe. 
Emheriza fucata I believe now has never yet been 
observed in Europe: it is a species of Eastern Siberia 
and Japan, and very well characterized by its long 
Lark-like claws. I am also quite sure that the female 
and young of E. Scliceniculus have often been confounded 
with one or the other of those species, although easily 
distinguished by its longer tail.” 
The Rustic Bunting is, as has been stated in the 
above letter, an inhabitant of Northern Russia. It is 
mentioned by Middendorff as occurring in Siberia, and 
Temminck states that it has been observed in the 
Crimea. It has also been taken accidentally near 
Marseilles, one individual having been captured there 
alive, and kept in a cage for two years, by M. 
Barthelemy, the curator of the museum of natural 
histoi'y in that town. This gentleman, as quoted by 
