PASSEltES FKING1LLIDAE EUSPIZA AMERICANA. 



295 



middle of October, the males have assumed the plumage of the females, and 

 are indistinguishable from them and the young, except that the streakings 

 underneath are heavier and blacker, particularly about the throat, and there 

 is also much black on the wings. 



In 1874, in the section south of Camp Grant, Ariz., these birds were 

 found in immense numbers. They had evidently finished breeding ; but the 

 close association into large flocks, which takes place somewhat later, had 

 not yet occurred, though old and young frequented the same locality, and 

 mingled freely together, as they employed themselves in searching among 

 the bushes and grass for seeds. By the first of September, they were found 

 about Camp Lowell to have gathered into true flocks, composed of many 

 individuals, all moved by the same impulses, and flying about from point 

 to point as the necessities for food and water impelled them. Many of the 

 males were still in adult dress, the change of plumage probably occurring 

 during this month. Great numbers of the individuals reared in Arizona 

 probably pass to the south, their places being taken by those from farther 

 north, so that, late in November, their relative abundance was still undimin- 

 ished. It so remains, doubtless, through the winter. 



EUSPIZA AMERICANA (Gm.). 



Black-throated Bunting-. 



Emberiza americana, GM., S.yst. Nat., i, 178S, 872. 



Euspiza americana, WOODII., Sitgreave's Exp. Ziifii & Col. Biv., 1854, 87 (Indian Ter- 

 ritory ; Texas ; Now Mexico). BD., Birds N. A., 1858, 494. HAYD., Trails. 

 Am. Phil. Soc., xii, 1802, 18. ALLEN, Bui. Mus. Cooip. Zool., 1872, 177 



