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EMBERIZA PASSERINA— WILSON, 



YELLOW-WINGED BUNTING. 



Yellow-winged Sparrow, Fringilla passerina, Wils. Amer. Orn. 



Fringilla passerina, Bonap. Syn. 



Yellow-winged Sparrow, Fringilla passerina, Aud. Orn. Biog. 



Specific Character — Bill very stout ; loral band yellow ; medial 

 band dull yellowish-white ; wing at shoulder bright yellow ; tail 

 emarginate, the feathers narrow and pointed. Adult with the up- 

 per part of the head dusky, intermixed with grayish-white ; a ring 

 round the eye and a band behind the eye of the same color ; medial 

 band yellowish-white ; a band from the nostrils to the eye yellow ; 

 hind neck ash gray, intermixed with dusky ; back brownish-black, 

 marked with bright chestnut ; quills and tail feathers dark brown, 

 margined with dull white ; inner secondaries and their coverts 

 darker and more broadly margined ; edges of the wings at flexure 

 bright yellow ; sides of the neck, breast, lower tail coverts, and 

 sides of the body, pale yellowish-gray, with a few touches of dus- 

 ky on the latter ; throat grayish-white. Length four inches and 

 three quarters, wing two and a half. 



This species can be readily distinguished from the former by the 

 difference in the coloring of the lower parts, which in this bird are 

 pale yellowish-gray, those parts of the preceding being white, with 

 the fore part of the breast and sides streaked with dusky, the yel- 

 low line over the eye more extensive, and the tail feathers are nar- 

 rower and more pointed. The favorite resort of the Yellow- winged 

 Bunting is the grass-fields — more especially the clover — where, 

 sitting on a stone or stump, it is observed sitting for hours together, 

 singing cheerfully and pleasantly. It is quite a common species, 

 and was first introduced to notice by Wilson. The nest, which is 

 formed of loose, dry grass, and lined with hair and fibrous roots, is 

 placed on the ground ; the eggs, five in number, are grayish-white, 

 sprinkled with brown. 



