63 
LARK BUNTING. 
Emberiza grammaca, Say. 
PLATE CL VIII. — 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 anything 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 gap-line nearly straight, a little 
deflected 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 co- 
vered with seven scutella, posteriorly with two longitudinal plates meeting 
