THE BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 327 



Sub-Family 



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 

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



EUSPIZA, BONAPARTB. 



Euspiza, BONAPARTE, List (1838). (Type Emberiza Americana, Cm.; 



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 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. 



Emberiza Americana, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 872. Wils. Am. Orn., III. 

 (1811) 86. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 579. 



Euspiza Americana, Bonaparte. List (1838). (Type.) Ib., 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. 



Hab. United States from the Atlantic to the border of the high central plains. 



