SNOW-BUNTING. 461 



the outer vane ; the other tail-feathers black. Bill yellow, blackish 

 towards the point. Feet and claws black. Iris deep brown. — In 

 the/<?ma/e all the white of the head, neck, and the region of the ears, 

 shaded with chesnut-brown inclining to tawny ; a sort of half collar 

 on the breast of the same color. The black feathers of the back and the 

 secondaries nearest to the body are all terminated with rufous-white ; 

 the quills and middle tail-feathers are edged and terminated with 

 whitish ; the rest of the plumage is as in the male. 



Winter plumage ; the adult male in autumn is clad in the livery of 

 the female. All the black feathers of the back, the wings, and the 

 tail, have then a wide border of ferruginous-grey ; the head, neck, 

 temples, and the breast are stained with light rusty; upon the rump 

 and tail-coverts are spread some touches of brown and rulous. The 

 greater part of the rufous and reddish-cinereous tints at length dis- 

 appear by the action of the air, and by the wearing of the ends of the 

 feathers, so that the male by spring appears such as he is described 

 above. 



The young of the year, such as they appear when emigrating in 

 autumn, have the crown the color of cinnamon, the auriculars, throat, 

 and wide collar on the breast of a deep rufous, the flanks the same 

 but paler ; the eyebrows and fore part of the neck of a whitish cine- 

 reous ; back of the neck greyish-rufous ; the black feathers above 

 are deeply bordered with dark-rufous ; only the middle of the wing 

 and its lower parts of a pure white ; the quills and middle tail-feath- 

 ers bordered with pale rufous ; the three lateral tail-feathers have 

 each a large black spot. The bill yellowish. — It varies some- 

 times to pure white, yellowish white, or with the plumage irreg- 

 ularly marked with brown and black. 



BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 



( Emberiza americanajWiLso^!! ,i. p. 54. pi. 3. fig. 2. [male]. Fringilla 

 americana, Bonap. Phil. Museum, No. 5952.) 



Sp. Charact. — The breast, line over the eye, and at the lower an- 

 gle of the bill, yellow ; chin white ; throat with a black patch ; 

 above, chiefly dull ferruginous varied with blackish. — Female 

 with little or no black on the breast, nor yellow over the eye. 



These birds arrive in Pennsylvania and New England, 

 from the South, about the middle of May, and abound in 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia where they seem to prefer 

 39* 



