Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 135 



229. Spiza americana (Gmel.). Dickcissel; Black-throated 

 Bunting. 



Although this species is now considered by almost all ornithol- 

 ogists to be extinct within the past thirty years, throughout 

 the whole extent of the Atlantic coastal plain, this impression 

 is not well-founded, at least as far as the states of Georgia and 

 South Carolina are concerned, for the Black-throated Bunting 

 or "Judas-bird" breeds at Augusta, Georgia, as well as in Aiken 

 and Fairfield counties. South Carolina. For the Georgia record 

 I am indebted to Dr. Eugene Edmund Murphey, and for the 

 Fairfield record to Mr. R. Henry Phillips, who wrote me under 

 date of May 20, 1906, as follows: 



The Dickcissel or 'Judas-bird,' as we call the Black-throated Bunting here 

 [Winnsboro], nests in natural meadows on our creeks. 



During the past twenty-five years that I have devoted to or- 

 nithology, I have seen but one of these birds, and that one was 

 observed in April, 1883, on Hobcaw plantation, which is within 

 sight of the city of Charleston. .-• c - *''; " 



This species winters in Central and South America. 



230. Calamospiza melanocorys Stejn. Lark Bunting. 



The Lark Bunting inhabits the Great Plains between the Mis- 

 souri River and the Rocky Mountains, and is a very rare bird 

 east of the Missouri River. I took one adult female on April 

 19, 1895, near Mount Pleasant, which is the first record for South 

 Carolina. It was recorded in the Auk,^ and I herewith tran- 

 scribe the account of the capture which I wrote for that journal: 



One afternoon in the early part of April, [1895,] I noticed a very plump looking 

 sparrow while I was walking down a road which had a very thick hedge on one 

 side. This bird was in the top of a bush when I noticed it and it bore a strong re- 

 semblance to the Grass Finch {Pooecetes gramineus), only it was larger. I fired 

 at it with a small collecting pistol and slightly wounded it. Day after day I vis- 

 ited the spot hoping to see the bird again. Eight days afterwards, April 19, early 

 one morning I saw the same bird within a few yards of the place where I had wound- 

 ed it. It was perched on a low bush and upon seeing me flew down into a field 

 where a lot of White-throated Sparrows were feeding. This time I secured it. 

 Upon examination I was completely puzzled for it was a new bird to me. I had 

 in mind the Lark Bunting {Calamospiza melanocorys) , and specimens of this 

 bird, kindly sent me by Messrs. Brewster and Chapman, confirmed my suspicions. 

 The bird is an adult female and evidently wintered, as it was moulting about the 

 throat. It seems strange that this l)ird was taken within 200 yards of the place 

 where I shot the Missouri Skylark, and Little Brown Crane, recorded in recent 

 numbers of the Auk. 



In the Atlantic states this species has also been taken at Lynn, 



» XII, 1895, 305-306. 



