236 LAND-BIRDS. 



as to gather in family parties during the autumn and their 

 migrations at that season. It is not always easy to catch sight 

 of them, particularly when they are near their nests, which they 

 conceal with extraordinary care, and often with much success. 

 Though shy, they often seem saucy ; and while one person 

 complains of their chirruping to and starting his horse, another 

 says that, on the discovery of their nest, they express their 

 sorrow so impudently as to rouse his indignation. 



d. Their most characteristic note is a " tow-hee" of which 

 the last syllable resembles in tone the chirp of the Wilson's 

 Thrush, though sometimes much more petulant. They have 

 also a whistled " whit'-a-whit'-a-whit'," often repeated in the 

 fall, when it sounds quite melancholy, and a loud chuck. 

 The males have a simple but sweet song, often poured out in 

 the early summer from some dilapidated fence or brush-heap, 

 which may be represented by the words " che we we we, wee," 

 the last being an indefinite trill. This chant is frequently 

 prolonged by the addition of other notes, and, says Mr. Allen, 

 in his "List of the Winter Birds of East Florida," "as is 

 well known, the song of " this bird " at the North consists of 

 two parts, nearly equal in length but otherwise quite dif- 

 ferent," though in that of " the Florida bird the last half 

 is almost entirely omitted." Mr. Samuels speaks of their 

 having, moreover, " a quavering warble difficult of descrip- 

 tion." 



XIX. EUSPIZA. 



A. AMERICANA. Black-throated Bunting. Very rare 

 in Massachusetts, where it has occasionally been found in the 

 summer season.* 



* Although several of the earlier abundant, and at many localities west 

 writers state that in their time (forty of the Alleghanies and east of the Mis- 

 years or more ago) the Black -throated sissippi its numbers have diminished 

 Bunting was a common summer resi- steadily and more or less rapidly. The 

 dent of southern New England, it is now causes of this wide-spread diminution 

 unquestionably one of the rarest spe- are at present obscure, but the facts 

 cies known to breed within this region, indicate that the species is not likely 

 Moreover, within the past two decades ever to reestablish itself in New Eng- 



it has practically disappeared from the land. W. B. 



Middle States, where it was formerly 



