|Family XV. FRINGILLINAE. FINCHES. GENUS II. EMBERIZA, Linn.
BUNTING. |Genus||EMBERIZA GRAMMACA, Say. This beautiful species
is another of those of which we owe our first knowledge 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, appears rather frequent on the
ground, resting on it in silence, or merely uttering 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