LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 311 
they are restricted to the loftiest and most inaccessible moun- 
tains, 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 Dauphiné. '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 Kurope, or in America, with some of the different, 
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 agreeable and melodious notes. 
As may be seen by the synonyms at the head of this article, 
this bird has been condemned by nomenclators to fluctuate 
between different genera. But between Mringilla and Emberiza 
it is not difficult to decide, 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 Emberiza, and much more 
distinctly marked than in the snow-bunting (Limberiza 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). ‘I'his we 
have adopted as a subgenus, and are almost inclined to admit 
as an independent genus, being well characterised both by form 
