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GENUS EMBERIZA— LINN. 



BUNTING. 



[Bill short, robust, somewhat compressed, conic ; upper mandible rounded 

 above, smaller and narrower than the lower ; nostrils small, open, rounded, par- 

 tially covered with the frontal feathers, tips acute, slightly notched ; head large, 

 ovate ; neck short ; body plump ; wings and tail of moderate length, the latter 

 emarginate ; tarsi about equal to ths middle toes, hind toe strongest, outer too 

 united at the base.] 



EMBERIZA AMERICANA— GMEL. 



BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 



Black-throated Bunting, Embsriza Americana, Wils. Amer. Orn. 



Fringilla americana, Bonap. Syn. 



Black-throated Bunting, Nutt. Man. 



Black-throated Bunting, Emberiza Americana, And. Orn. Biog, 



Specific Character — Bill light blue, darker above, and much 

 stouter than that of any species of this Genus. Adult with the 

 fore part of the head greenish-olive ; occiput, hind neck, cheeks, 

 and sides of the neck, dark ash-gray ; a band from the nostrils 

 over the eye, and a band from the lower mandible yellow, termi- 

 nating with white ; chin white ; throat black ; the lower neck and 

 middle of the breast yellow; sides ash-gray ; abdomen white; back 

 grayish-brown, the fore part streaked with black ; lesser wing 

 coverts bright chestnut ; quills and tail feathers brown, margined 

 with lighter. Female without the black on the throat, and with 

 the general plumage duller. Length six inches and a half, wing 

 three and a quarter. 



About the middle of May the Black-throated Bunting arrives on 

 Long Island from the South. It prefers the grain, grass and clover 

 fields, where it continues its oft-repeated chirrup until the early part 

 of August, then becoming silent. In the early part of September 

 it migrates southward. The nest is built on the ground ; the eggs 

 i^re five, — white, speckled with black. 



