FRINGILLIDiE — THE FINCHES. 803 



SPECIES. 



S. americana. Top and side of head light slate, or ash-gray; forehead tinged with 

 greenish yellow. A superciliary stripe, a malar spot, side of breast, and middle line of 

 breast and belly, yellow. Chin white, throat blac?k, shoulders chestnut. Female witli 

 the black of the throat replaced by a crescent of spots. UaJ). Eastei-n Province of Uniteil 

 States; south in winter to New Granada. 



S. townsendi. Body throughout (including the jugulumi.dark ash, tinged with brown- 

 ish on the back and wings. Superciliary and malar stripes, chin, thi'o:it, and middle of 

 belly, white. A submalar line and a pectoral crescent of black spots. No chestnut ou 

 shoulders. Eab. Chester county, Pennsylvania. 



Spiza americana (Linn.) 



DICK CISSEL, 



PoptUar synonyms. Black-throated Bunting; Little Field Lark; Little Meadowlark. 



Emheriza americana Gmel. S. N. 1,1788,871.— Wils. Am. Orn. 1,1808,411; iii,1811. 86, pl.3. 

 flg. 2.— NUTT. Man. i, 1832, 4(;i.— AUD. Orn. Biog. iv,1838, 579, pi. 3M: Synop. 1839,101; 

 B.Am. iii,1841,58,pl. 156. 

 Eitspiza americana Bp. 1838.— Baird, B. N. Am. 1.8.58, 494; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859. No. 378. 

 — CouEs.Key. 1872, 148; Check List. 1874, No. 191; B. N. W. 1874, 165; B. B. & E. Hist. 

 N. Am. B. ii, 1874. 65, pi. 2S,flgs. 11.12. 

 Spiza americana RiDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. No. 254.— ConES.2d Check List. 1882, No. 287. 



Hab. Eastern United States in summer, north to Connecticut and Massachusetts 

 (rarely); west to the Great Plains. and. during migr.ation.to ,\rizoua. Winters within the 

 Tropics, as far south as Colombia. 



"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-coveits whits. A black patch on the 

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

 Wing-eoverts chestnut. Interscapular region streaked with black; rest of h.ack im- 

 maculate. Length, about 6.70; wing,3.50. 



"Female with the markings less distinctly indicated; the black of the breast re- 

 placed by a black maxillary line and streaked collar in the yellow of the upper part of 

 the breast. 



"AmoBg 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." {Hist. X. Am. B.) 



While some other birds are equally numerous, there are few that 

 announce their presence as persistently as this species. All day 

 long, in spring and summer, the males, sometimes to the number 

 of a dozen or more for each meadow of considerable extent, perch 



