584 THE BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 



Cowbird's ^^z, with a large hole in the side of it, lying on 

 the ground beneath this nest. Probably the spirited Chat, in 

 indignation over this imposition of an interloping parasite, 

 had stuck its bill into the ^%^ and ousted it. 



The Yellow-breasted Chat, subsisting on insects and ber- 

 ries, reaches the middle districts in May, extending to 

 New Jersey and the lower Hudson, Northern Ohio and cor- 

 responding localities westward, and returning to the south 

 in August. On the High Plains, west, it is replaced by the 

 Long-tailed Chat. 



THE BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 



To the student of nature, the identification of even the most 

 established facts is ever a fresh surprise. No matter how 

 fully Wilson, Audubon, and the more recent ornithologists 

 may have reported our birds, my acquaintance with each 

 species has been almost as delightful a novelty as if I had 

 been the first to discover and describe it. Of all the Spar- 

 rows which find their habitat in Northern Ohio, the last one 

 to respond to my search was the Black-throated Bunting 

 {Eiispiza americana). I had long been on the alert for it, when 

 one evening at sunset, as I was riding by a rich clover field 

 on low clayey ground, I heard a new song in a tree by the 

 road. Chic-chic-cJielac-chick-chick-chick, and chick-ticktshe-chick- 

 chick-chick, in loud, explosive tones, recalls that song still 

 vividly to my ears. "A Black-throated Bunting, I'll bet," 

 said I to my companion, who carried the gun; "out, and 

 let's have it." While he climbed out of the buggy and 

 made ready to shoot, I noted the gesticulations of the bird 

 as it sang most enthusiastically on a topmost spray and in 

 the blaze of the evening light. With head uplifted till he 

 stood quite perpendicular, and with drooping wings and 

 tail, he fairly shook himself in the ardor of his utterance. 



