THE BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 327 



Sub-Family Spizin^. 



Bill variable, always large, much arched, and with the culmen considerably 

 curved; sometimes of enormous size, and with a great development backwards of 

 the lower jaw, which is always appreciably, sometimes considerably, broader behind 

 than the upper jaw at its base; nostrils exposed; tail rather variable; bill generally 

 black or red; wings shorter than in the first group; gape almost always much more 

 strongly bristled; few of the species sparrow-like or plain in appearance; usually 

 Dlue, red, or black and white; seldom (or never?) streaked beneath. 



EUSPIZA, Bonaparte. 



Euspiza, Bonaparte, List (1838). (Type Emberiza Americana, Gm.; 



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 iuflexed, and shut- 

 ting much within the upper mandible ; the commissure considerably angulated at 

 the base, then decidedly sinuated ; the tarsus barely equal 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 its claw; the wings long and acute, reaching 

 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 gradu- 

 ated; tail considerably shorter than the wings, though moderately long, nearly even, 

 although slightly emarginate; the outer feathers scarcely shorter; middle of back 

 only striped; beneath without streaks. 



EUSPIZA AMERICANA. — Bonaparte. 



The Black-throated Bunting. 



Emheriza Americana, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., L (1788) 872. Wils. Am. Om. Ill 

 (1811) 86. Aud. Om. Biog., IV. (1838) 579. *' 



Euspiza Americana, Bonaparte. List (1838). (Type.) lb., Consp. (1850), 469. 

 Euspina Americana, Cabanis. Mus. Hein. (1851), 133. (Type.) 



Description. 



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, spots on sides of throat, belly, and under tail coverts white; a black patch 

 on the throat diminishing to the breast, and a spot on the upper part of the belly; 

 wing coverts chestnut; interscapular region streaked with black; rest of back 

 immaculate. 



Female with the markings less distinctly indicated; the black of the breast 

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

 part of the breast. 



Length, about six and seventy one-hundredths inches; wing, three and fifty one- 

 hundredths inches. 



Fa6. — United States from the AUantic to the border of the high central plains. 



