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Even in winter, however, its diversified plumage is sufficiently striking.

BRANT or BRENT, words of doubtful etymology: the former spelling is most usually adopted by American, the latter by English authors, and in Britain the word GOOSE is generally added.

BREASTBONE, see STERNUM.

BRISTLE-BIRD, the name given by the colonists to three species of the genus Sphenura of Lichtenstein (as now restricted) which inhabit Australia, from the two or three pairs of strong recurved bristles which project laterally from the gape. They were formerly considered to belong to the Sylviida; but latterly, like many others, have been referred (chiefly on account of their short wings) to the Timeliida by Mr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 104). Their true position seems yet to be determined. They mostly conceal themselves in thickets, especially in marshy places, flying very little, but running very quickly, and carrying the tail erect. The nest is built of dry grass, globular in form, and is of large size. S. brachyptera, the type of the genus, inhabits New South Wales, and the two others, S. longirostris and S. broadbenti, are found in Western Australia and the interior of South Australia respectively. Allied to Sphenura is Amytis, with 3 or 4 species, also Australian, somewhat Wren-like in form, and having the gape beset with five pairs of bristles, which, however, are directed more forwardly, and are weaker.

BROADBILL, Swainson's name, appropriate as will be seen by the figure, in 1837 (Classif. B. ii. p. 80), for a remarkable group of birds comprehending

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the genus Eurylæmus of Horsfield (Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 170) and some allied forms, all inhabiting the Indian Region, and especially developed in Malacca, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo; but found also in the elevated part of India, and extending to the Philippines. The position of this group, which was in 1842 recognized by Baron de Selys-Longchamps as forming a good Family, Eurylamidæ, had long been doubtful, some authors regarding it as allied to the Muscicapida (FLY-CATCHER), others to the Coraciida (ROLLER), and so forth. By degrees what seems to

EURYLEMUS.

(After Swainson.)

CALYPTOMENA.

be its true place as belonging to the OLIGOMYODI, as that term is used in this work; but the Eurylamidæ, so far as they have been examined, differ from all other PASSERES in "their retention of a plantar vinculum," as first noticed by Garrod (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 449), which fact led W. A. Forbes to propose for them further separation as DESMODACTYLI (op. cit. 1880, p. 390). But what seems to be a stronger reason for separating them is that, as Mr. Sclater had already shewn (Ibis, 1872, p. 179), the manubrium, or anterior projection of the sternum, is not forked as in other PASSERES. According to him in 1888 (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 454-470) the Eurylamidæ comprehend two subfamilies, Calyptomenina, consisting of the genus Calyptomena only, and Eurylæminæ, containing six genera, two of which, Psarisomus and Serilophus, are found in India, while examples of all the rest, the Philippine Sarcophanops excepted, occur in British territory further to the eastward. They are nearly all birds of great beauty, and the two species of Calyptomena are remarkable for their rich green plumage, and the way in which the frontal feathers project upwards and forwards, so as almost to conceal the bill, and being adpressed form a disk-like prominence. They are frugivorous, but the Eurylæminæ seem to be insectivorous. Not much is recorded of their habits, but they are said to be stupid, songless birds, and usually keep in small flocks. (Cf. Oates, B. Br. Burmah, i. pp. 422-431.)

BRONCHI, adj. bronchial, from ẞpóyxos, the windpipe. The thoracic end of the TRACHEA is divided into a right and a left bronchus. Each bronchus enters the lung of its side and passes through its whole length as mesobronchium, from which go off about 10 secondary bronchi towards the surface of the LUNG. In almost all birds-the exceptions being the Cathartidæ, true Storks, and Steatornis-the bronchi are strengthened by cartilaginous semirings; the ends of these rings point towards the median line, and are closed by the inner tympaniform membrane. The right and left membranes are connected with each other by an elastic band, called bronchidesmus. All the rings which partake of the formation of the pessulus of the trachea belong to the latter, the pessulus thus marking the beginning of the bronchi (see also TRACHEA and SYRINX).

BRONZE-WING, the name given in Australia to several species of PIGEON belonging to the genera or so-called genera Phaps, Geophaps, Lophophaps, and Ocyphaps, from the lustrous coppery or bronze-like spots they display on their wings.

BRUBRU, the name (apparently originating with Levaillant) of a conspicuously-coloured SHRIKE, the Nilaus brubru or N. capensis of modern ornithology.

1 The style of plumage in this genus recalls that of Ampelis (WAXWING), but no affinity thereto can be thought to exist.

BRUSH-TURKEY, the Australian name for one of the largest

of the MEGAPODES, Talegallus lathami, which has frequently made its mound, laid its eggs, and reared its young in the Zoological Gardens, after the manner described many years ago by Mr. Bartlett (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, pp. 426, 427). In earlier days the position of this bird was a great puzzle to some ornithologists, who thought from the form of its bill that it was a Bird-of-Prey, and called it the "New-Holland Vulture."

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TALEGALLUS. (After Swainson.)

BUDJERIGAR (spelling doubtful) a corruption of Betcherrygah, given by Gould as the native name of the pretty little Australian PARRAKEET, Melopsittacus undulatus, that is now so favourite a cage-bird. Its name has of late been still further corrupted into Beauregard!

BUFFLE-HEAD (i.e. Buffalo-head) a North-American species of Duck, Clangula albeola, allied to the GOLDEN-EYE.

BULBUL, from the Arabic through the Persian, in the poetry of which language it plays a great part, and is generally rendered "Nightingale" by translators, and rightly so according to Blyth (Calcutta Review, No. lv. March 1857, p. 153), who says that it "is a species of true Nightingale." In this case it is probably that named Daulias hafizi, in honour of the great Persian poet. But whatever may have been originally intended, and Yule says

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(Hobson-Jobson) that the name is derived from the bird's note, the word has for a good many years been applied by AngloIndians to various species, all or nearly all of which belong to a group Ixide (otherwise Brachypodidæ, so-called from their short legs), and usually referred to the ill-defined "Family" Timeliida. Of this group the latest authority, Mr. Oates (Faun. Br. India, Birds,

1 Cf. Blanford, Zool. and Geol. Persia, p. 169, pl. x. fig. 2; and Dresser, Ibis, 1875, p. 338.

i. pp. 253, 254), makes sixteen genera, one of them, Molpastes, being that which he considers to contain what may be called the genuine Bulbuls, formerly included in the genus Pycnonotus, but since separated therefrom, on characters, however, which seem to be of the slightest. No fewer than nine species are now recognized as inhabiting various parts of the Indian Empire and Ceylon, that found in Bengal and to the northward, M. pygaus or bengalensis, being perhaps the best known, but Madras, the Punjab, Burma, and Tenasserim have each its own form or species. They are said to be familiar garden-birds, and are usually common, going about in pairs with a melodious chirping.

BULLFINCH, doubtless so called from the thickness of its head and neck, when compared with other members of the Family Fringillida (FINCH), to which it belongs the familiar bird, Pyrrhula europea, which hardly needs description. The varied plumage of the cock-his bright red breast and his grey back, set off by his coalblack head and quills-is naturally attractive; while the facility with which he is tamed, and his engaging disposition in confinement, make him a popular cage-bird,-to say nothing of the fact (which in the opinion of so many adds to his charms) of his readily learning to "pipe" a tune, or some bars of one, though this perversion of his natural notes is hardly agreeable to the ornithologist. By gardeners the Bullfinch has long been regarded as a deadly enemy, from its undoubted destruction of the buds of fruit-trees in spring-time, though whether the destruction is really so much of a detriment is by no means undoubted. Northern and Eastern Europe is inhabited by a larger form, P. major, which differs in nothing but size and more vivid tints from that which is common in the British Isles and Western Europe. A very distinct species, P. murina, remarkable for its dull coloration, is peculiar to the Azores, and several others are found in Asia from the Himalayas to Japan. More recently a Bullfinch, P. cassini, has been discovered in Alaska, being the first recognition of this genus in the New World. (Cf. Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1887, pp. 103-110.)

BULLHEAD and BULLSEYE, names applied chiefly in Ireland and North America to the Golden and Grey PLOVERS; but the former also given locally to the GOLDEN-EYE.

BUNTING, Old English "Buntyle," Scottish "Buntlin," a word of uncertain origin,1 properly the common English name of the bird

1 Prof. Skeat (Etymol. Dict.) has suggested a connexion with the old verb, still extant as a dialectic form, bunten to butt; but this is not very apparent.

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short and thick, or plump, which,

He has also cited the Scottish word buntin however, seems as likely to have been derived from the bird, for the clumsy

called by Linnæus Emberiza miliaria, but now used in a general sense for all members of the Family Emberizida, which are closely allied to the Fringillida (FINCH). The Buntings generally may be outwardly distinguished from the Finches by their angular gape, the posterior portion of which is greatly deflected; and most of the Old-World forms, together with some of those of the New World, have a bony knob on the palate—a swollen out growth of the dentary edges of the bill. Correlated with this peculiarity the maxilla usually has the tomia sinuated, and is generally concave, and smaller and narrower than the mandible, which is also concave to receive the palatal knob. In most other respects the Buntings greatly resemble the Finches, but their eggs are generally distinguishable by the irregular hair-like markings on the shell. In the British Islands by far the commonest species of Bunting is the YELLOW HAMMER, E. citrinella, but the true Bunting (or Corn-Bunting, or Bunting-Lark, as it is called in some districts) is a very well known bird, while the Reed-Bunting, E. schoniclus, frequents marshy soils almost to the exclusion of the two former. In certain localities in the south of England the Cirl-Bunting, E. cirlus, is also a resident; and in winter vast flocks of the SnowBunting, Plectrophanes nivalis, at once recognizable by its pointed wings and elongated hind-claws, resort to our shores and open grounds. This last breeds sparingly on the highest mountains of Scotland, the fact being placed beyond doubt by the discovery of a nest and young in 1886 by Messrs. B. N. Peach and L. N. Hinxman, as briefly recorded soon after by Mr. Harvie-Brown (Zoologist, 1886, p. 336), and with full details in the Vertebrate Fauna of Sutherland by that gentleman and Mr. Buckley (pp. 138-143, pl.); but the flocks which visit us come from northern regions, for it is a species which in summer inhabits the whole circumpolar area. The ORTOLAN, E. hortulana, so highly prized for its delicate flavour, occasionally appears in England, but this island lies outside its proper range. On the continent of Europe, in Africa, and throughout Asia, many other species are found, while in America the number belonging to the Family cannot at present be computed. As already stated, the beautiful and melodious CARDINAL, Cardinalis virginianus, often called the Virginian Nightingale, probably has to be included in this Family, but doubts exist as to the BOBOLINK, though it is commonly known as the RiceBunting. Whether any species of Emberizida inhabit the Australian Region is yet to be proved; but it would seem possible that several genera of Australian birds hitherto classed with the Fringillida may have to be assigned to the Emberizida.

figure of the true Bunting is very evident to any observer. Any connexion with the German bunt or the Dutch bonte (= pied or variegated) is said to be most unlikely.

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