ORD. III. GEN. VII. BUNTING. 



TAWNEY BUNTING. 



PL 8 1*. 



The bill of this bird is Ihort and yellow, the tip black ; eyes brown : the 

 forehead and cheeks chefnut brown : the back of the neck reddifh brown : the 

 throat white : breaft pale chefnut colour : belly and under parts white : back 

 chefnut brown, with black angular middles to the feathers : tail coverts reddifti 

 brown, middle tail feathers black, outer ones white : lefs wing coverts brown 

 with white ends ; greater, white with black tips : ihoulder greenifh white ; 

 quills dull black : legs black. 



This is not a diftinct fpecies, but a young male of the fnow bunting, which 

 has been divided into three fpecies (by thofe that know no more of natural hif- 

 tory than they learn by the fire fide), viz. the mountain bunting, a very old 

 bird, almoft white; the fnow bunting, which is the adult male; and the tawney 

 bunting, the young male of the firft year, varying with more or lefs white in its 

 approaches to the adult ftate. All thefe varieties fly together, and univerfally 

 retain the fame characters in the form and colour of the beak and legs. Lin- 

 naeus juftly claiTed them as one fpecies, and I cannot fee the leaft reafon to al- 

 ter his arrangement. 



