66 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Sp. Char. Male. Sides of the head and sides and back of the neck ash ; crown tinged 

 with yellowish-green and faintly streaked with dusky. A superciliary and short maxillary 

 line, middle of the breast, axillaries, and edge of the wing yellow. Chin, loral region, 

 patch on side of throat, belly, and under tail-coverts white. A black patch on the 

 throat diminishing to the breast, and ending in a spot on the upper part of the belly. 

 Wing-coverts chestnut. Interscapular region streaked with black ; rest of back immacu- 

 late. Length, about 6.70 ; wing, 3.50. 



Female with the markings less distinctly indicated ; the black of the breast replaced by 

 a black maxillary line and a streaked collar in the yellow of the upper part of the breast. 



Hab. United States from the Atlantic to the border of the high Central Plains, south 

 to Panama and New G-ranada. Xalapa (Scl. 1857, 205) ; Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 18) ; 

 Turbo, N. a. (Cassin, P. A. N. S. 1860, 140) ; Panama (Lawr. VII, 1801, 298) ; Nica- 

 ragua, Graytown (Lawr. VIII, 181) ; Veragua (Salv. 1867, 142) ; Costa Rica (Lawr. 

 IX, 103) ; Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I, 552). 



Among adult males, scarcely two individuals exactly alike can be found. 

 In some the black of the throat is continued in blotches down the middle 

 of the breast, while in others it is restricted to a spot immediately under 

 the head. These variations are not at all dependent upon any difference 

 of habitat, for specimens from remote regions from each other may be found 

 as nearly alike as any from the same locality. Some specimens from Central 

 America are more deeply colored than North American ones, owing, no 

 doubt, to the freshness of the plumage. 



Habits. The history of the Black-throated Bunting has, until very re- 

 cently, been much obscured by incorrect 

 observations and wrong descriptions. Evi- 

 dently this bird has been more or less con- 

 founded with one or two other species entirely 

 different from it. Thus Wilson, Audubon, 

 and Nuttall, in speaking of its nest and eggs, 

 give descriptions applicable to Coturniculus 

 imsserinus or to C. henslowi, but which are 

 wholly wrong as applied to those of this 

 bird. Nuttall, whose observations of North 

 American birds were largely made in Massa- 

 chusetts, speaks of this bird being quite com- 

 mon in that State, where it is certainly very 

 rare, and describes, as its song, notes that 

 have no resemblance to those of this Bunt- 

 ing, but which are a very exact description of the musical performances of 

 the Yellow-winged Sparrow. 



It is found in the eastern portion of North America, from the base of the 

 Black Hills to the Atlantic States, and from Massachusetts to South Carolina. 

 I am not aware that on the Atlantic it has ever been traced farther south 

 than that State, but farther west it is found as far at least as Southwestern 

 Texas. During winter it is found in Central America, and in Colombia, 

 South America. 



Euspiza americana. 



