YELLOW-FACE GRASS-QUIT. 249 



ing the nest desecrated ? or by the male, at not 

 finding his mate ? for on letting the bird go in the 

 darkness, she in her fright flew in the opposite 

 direction, and perhaps did not find the nest. 



YELLOW FACE GRASS-QUIT.* 

 Spermophila olivacea. 



Emberiza olivacea^ LINN. 



FringiUa lepida, Ibid. 



Passerina olivacea, VIEILL. 



Spermophila olivacea, Sw. 



IMMEDIATELY behind the homestead of Blue fields, 

 a lane, confined for a mile or two between dry- 

 stone walls, leads to the road which winds in a 

 zig-zag line to the top of the Bluefields ridge. 

 This lane possesses many attractions. By the wall 

 on each side grow trees, which afford grateful 

 shade, and many of them load the evening air with 

 dewy fragrance. Orange-trees, profusely planted, 

 give out in spring gushes of odour from their 

 waxen blossoms, and in autumn tempt the eye 



* Length 4-i inches, expanse 6|, flexure 2, tail 1-j^, rictus ^, tarsus 

 -j^, middle toe ^. Irides dark hazel ; feet purplish ; beak horny black. 



Male. Upper parts olive ; a stripe over the eye, a minute one under 

 the eye, and the chin and throat, rich yellow, narrowly edged with 

 black ; lower throat and breast black, merging into the olive ; belly 

 very pale olive ; vent and under tail coverts almost white. Wing-quills 

 blackish, edged with olive ; edge of shoulder yellow. Tail olive. 



In the female the black is absent, and the yellow is less conspicuous. 



