66 



NORTH AMEIUCAN BIRDS. 



.Si>. CiiAH. Mole. Sidi's of flic lie.id and sides and back of tlic neck ash ; crown tinped 

 with yi'llowish-gic'cn and faintly streaked with dusky. A siipereiiiaiy and short maxillary 

 line, middle of the breast, axillaries, and edge of the wing yellow. Chin, loral region, 

 patch on side of throat, belly, and under tail-coverts white. A black patch on the 

 throat diminishing to the breast, and ending in a spot on the upper part of the belly. 

 Wing-covcrts chestnut. Interscapular region streaked with black ; rest of back immacu- 

 late. Length, about (i.70; wing, 3.50. 



Fenutle with the markings less distinctly indicated ; the black of the breast replaced l)y 

 a black maxillary line and a streaked collar in the yellow of the upi)er part of the breast. 



II.\ii. United States from the Atlantic to th(! border of the high Central Plains, south 

 to Panama and New GraTiada. Xalajia (Scu ISoT, 205); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 18); 

 Turbo, N. Cr. (Cassis, P. A. N. 8. 18(i0, 140); Panama (Lawk. VII, 18C1, 298); Nica- 

 ragua, (traytown (Lawu. VIII, 181) ; Veragua (Salv. 1807, 142); Costa Rica (Lawk. 

 IX, lu;i) ; Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I, 552). 



^\ni()iig adiiU, males, scarcely two iiulividuals exactly alike can be found. 

 In some the liliick of the tliroat is continued in blotches down the nii<klle 

 of tlie bi'east, wliile in others it is restricted to a sjiot immediately under 

 the hciul. These variations are not at all dependent upon any difference 

 of habitat, for specimens from remoti; rejj;ions from each other may be found 

 as nearly alike as any from the same locality. Some specimens from Central 

 America are more deeply colored than North American ones, owing, no 

 dnubt, to the freshness of the plumage. 



Hahits. The history of the Ijlack-throated Bunting has, until very re- 

 cently, Iteeu much ol)scured by incorrect 

 observations and wrong descriptions. Evi- 

 dently tliis bird has been more or less con- 

 founded with one f)r two other ,s])ecies entirely 

 different from it. Thus Wilson, Audubon, 

 iind Nuttidl, in speaking of its nest and eggs, 

 give descriptions ap])lical)le to CoturnicnliiH 

 jKtsscrhiKs or to V. hcm/oici , Ijut which are 

 wholly wrong as applied to those of this 

 bird. Nuttall, whose observations of North 

 American l)irds were largely made in Massa- 

 chusetts, spetiks of this bird being (juite com- 

 mon in that State, where it is certainly very 

 rare, and describes, as its song, notes that 

 have no resemblance to those of this P>unt- 

 ing, but which tire a very exact description of the musical performances of 

 the Yellow-winged Sjiarrow. 



It is found in the eiistern portion of North America, from the Ijase of the 

 Black Hills to the AtLintic States, iind from Massachusetts to South Carolina. 

 I am not aware tliat on the Atlantic it ha-s ever been traced fartiier soutii 

 than that State, but farther west it is found as far at lea.st as Soutliwestern 

 Texas. During winter it is found in Central America, and in Colombia, 

 Soutli America, 



Kttsinza americana. 



