DICKCISSEL. 299 



rarely display any hostility to the birds around them, or 

 amongst each other. In August they become mute, and about 

 the beginning of September depart for the South, wintering as 

 well as breeding in Texas and other parts of Mexico, but are 

 not seen in the Southern States at any period of the winter. 

 Their food consists of seeds, eggs of insects, and gravel, and in 

 the early part of summer they subsist much upon caterpillars 

 and small coleopterous insects ; they are also among the many 

 usual destroyers of the ruinous cankerworm. 



This species occurs regularly in southern New England, but is 

 rather rare in Massachusetts, and is merely accidental farther to 

 the northward. The only examples that have been met with in 

 Canada were the few that Mr. William E. Saunders found breeding 

 at Point Pelee in southern Ontario. 



Note. — Townsend's Bunting {Spiza townsendii) was placed 

 on the " Hypothetical List " by the A. O. U. Committee. The type 

 specimen taken by Mr. Townsend in Pennsylvania remains unique. 



The Lark Bunting {Calamospiza melanocorys) has been seen 

 in Massachusetts, — the only instance of its occurrence east of the 

 Great Plains. 



