BIRDS OF KANSAS. 493 



room and food, and, when thus carefully treated, breed as freely 

 as within their natural haunts. Their chief food consists of the 

 various kinds of seeds and insect life. Their flights are not 

 swift, but strong and well sustained. The males, like most 

 highly-colored birds, do not assist in hatching the eggs, but share 

 in the duties of feeding and caring for their young. 



Their nests are placed in forks of low trees and bushes; they 

 are composed of grasses, sometimes leaves, at the base, and 

 lined with the finer grasses and hairs. Eggs four or five, . 78 x 

 .57; creamy to bluish white, thinly speckled and spotted with 

 purple and reddish brown, thickest about the larger end; in 

 form, oval. 



GENUS SPIZA BONAPARTE. 



"Bill large and strong, swollen, and without any ridges; the lower mandible 

 nearly as high as the upper, as broad at the base as the length of the gonys, and 

 considerably broader than the upper mandible; the edges much inflexed, and 

 shutting much within the upper mandible; the commissure considerably angu- 

 lated at the base, then decidedly sinuated. The tarsus barely to the middle toe; 

 the lateral toes nearly equal, not reaching to the base of the middle claw; the 

 hind toe about equal to the middle one without claw. The wings long and acute, 

 r eaching nearly to the middle of the tail; the tertials decidedly longer than the 

 secondaries, but much shorter than the primaries; first quill longest, the others 

 regularly graduated. Tail considerably shorter than the wings, though moder- 

 ately long; nearly even, though slightly emarginate; the outer feathers scarcely 

 shorter. Middle of back only striped; beneath without streaks. 



"This genus comes nearer to Calamospiza, but has shorter tertials, more slen- 

 der bill, weaker and more curved claws, etc." 



Spiza americana (GMEL.). 



DICKCISSEL. 

 PLATE XXX. 



Summer resident; abundant in the eastern to middle part of 

 the State; rare in the western portion. Arrive the last of April 

 to first of May; begin laying the last of May; leave in Septem- 

 ber. 



B. 378. K. 254. C. 287. G. 127, 249. U. 604. 



HABITAT. Eastern United States; north to New England and 

 southern Dakota; west to the Rocky Mountains; south in win- 

 ter (casually southwest to Arizona and Lower California) to 

 northern South America. Breeds chiefly north of the Southern 

 States. 



