244 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



as by ourselves. We do this with some confidence ; since it has, we trust, 

 been demonstrated, that such divisions are no longer arbitrary. Unless they 

 find their representatives in other groups, no genus or sub-genus can now, in short, 

 be natural. By this test, the group here denominated Zonotrichia must eventually 

 be tried ; since, to use an expressive phrase, its precise station in Nature has not 

 been worked out. Still more obscurity hangs over the Linnet-like birds, com- 

 prising, among others, the American Fringilla purpurea of Wilson and the 

 Pyrrhula frontalis of Prince C. Bonaparte : these we refer, conditionally, to the 

 Pyrt hulince. Yet, on the other hand, we feel by no means sure that they are not 

 aberrant forms in the genus Linaria, among the Coccothraustinw •. 



The geographic distribution of the Fringillinte, or Sparrow-like Finches, is not 

 so general as might be inferred from the number of the species. They abound in 

 cold and temperate climates ; but are so thinly scattered in tropical regions, that 

 we know but of two species from South America, and not one from the Indian 

 Islands or Australia. The genus Emberiza, however, occurs both in Northern 

 and Southern Africa nearly under its typical form. — Sw. 



[63.] 1. Alauda calandra. (Linn.) The Calendre Lark. 



Sub-family, Alaudinae, Swains. Genus, Alauda, Linn. 



The Calandra. Edwauds, pi. 2C8. 



Calandra Lark. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 393, No. 280. 



This Lark was first described as American by Edwards, on the authority of a 

 dealer in birds ; but no subsequent author mentions having seen specimens from 

 that continent. There is an individual, however, from the fur-countries, in the 

 British Museum, presented by the Hudson's Bay Company, which differs from 

 an European example solely in its bill and tarsi being rather shorter. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a specimen from Hudson's Bay. 

 Colour, &c. — Upper plumage liver-brown, with pale margins; throat, belly, inner borders 

 of the tertiaries, exterior tail feathers, and the ends of the adjoining pair, white ; the other 

 tail feathers, except the middle pair, slightly tipped with the same ; flanks and breast pale- 

 brown, the latter spotted with umber ; a dark-brown collar on the anterior base of the neck, 

 and two umber-brown marks on the side of the neck, separated by white. Bill greyish, 

 tipped with brown : it is strong, somewhat compressed, and very slightly curved. The hind 

 claw is long and straight. 



