63 



LARK BUNTING. 



--Emberiza grammaca, Say. 

 PLATE CLVIIL— Male. 



This beautiful species is another of those of which we owe our first know- 

 ledge to Colonel Long's party, who discovered it on their expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains. To the Prince of Musignano we are indebted for the 

 first figure of it. That naturalist states, in the short account he has given of 

 it, that "it sings sweetly, and often continues its notes while on the wing," 

 and to this I can only add the following statement with which I am favoured 

 by my friend Mr. Nuttall. 



"This species, in small flocks, in the spring season, when we saw it, ap- 

 pears rather frequent on the ground, resting on it in silence, or merely utter- 

 ing a feeble chirp. They do not appear on the central table-land, or on the 

 western plains. We therefore had no opportunity of learning any thing of 

 their habits in the breeding season. I believe they are occasionally seen at 

 no great distance from the upper settlements of the Missouri." 



Upper Missouri, and eastern declivities of the Rocky Mountains. Com- 

 mon. Migratory. 



Fringilla grammaca, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 47. 



Lark Finch, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 480. 



Lark Finch, Fringilla grammaca, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 17. 



Adult Male. 



Bill short, stout, conical, compressed toward the end; upper mandible with 

 the dorsal line very slightly convex, the ridge extending but a short way on 

 the forehead, where it tapers to a point, the sides rounded, the edges direct 

 and overlapping, the tip pointed, the gape-line nearly straight, a little de- 

 flected at the base; lower mandible of the same breadth as the upper, with 

 the angle very short and broad, the dorsal line ascending and straight, the 

 back broad, the sides rounded, the edges inflected, the tip acute. Nostrils 

 basal, small, roundish, concealed by the feathers. 



Head of moderate size, ovate; neck short, body full. Feet of moderate 

 length and rather slender; tarsus rather short, compressed, anteriorly cover- 

 ed with seven scutella, posteriorly with two longitudinal plates meeting so 



