344 NOTES ON THE 
anterior angle of chin, velvet-black. Wing feathers brown, 
edged externally with dull bluish-brown. 
Length, about 5.75; wing, nearly 3 inches. 
Habitat, eastern United States to the Missouri. 
SPIZA AMERICANA (GMELIN). (604.) 
DICKCISSEL. . 
This bunting, so common in the country where I spent my 
boyhood, -eluded my observations for a good many years unti] © 
one morning in April a male presumably from a recent battle 
with a rival, dashed into the fence very near me in a fearfully 
excited condition in which he failed to recognize my presence, 
thus giving me a coveted opportunity to see him in all his glory 
before devoting him as a sacrifice toscience. Encouraged by this, 
I kept a sharp lookout for these birds, and enlisted the atten- 
tion of several amateur collectors, who soon found they were 
almost daily to be seen in a single restricted locality. The 
following year, that spot was under constant scrutiny until 
assured that not an individual had been seen in its vicinity up 
to the 1st of June. But several miles from it a number of 
them had been secured in another similarly situated locality. 
It was found in both instances in the immediate vicinity of 
plowed, and cultivated fields, but in dry, rich meadows bearing 
a dense growth of wild grass, and a few shrubs, or bushes, 
with an occasional, small-sized tree. A few only were flushed, 
and only two or three shot, not wishing to drive them from a 
locality presumably chosen to rear their young in. Afewdays 
established the presumption when on the 23d of May their 
mouths were observed to be occupied with straws. Although 
repeated efforts were made to find the nests, only one was found 
by a boy, who believed it was a Bluebird’s, and only brought 
away the eggs, four in number, that were barely addled. A sub- 
sequent investigation established its identity, as that of the 
Black-throat. 
The next two years following, I neither saw any of this 
species, nor gathered any reports of it in the State, when on 
the third year it reappeared in perhaps a little increased num- 
bers but not in either of its former localities. 
In the autumnal migrations Prof. C. L. Herrick reported 
them ‘‘quite abundant” in the vicinity of Minneapolis. Mr, 
John Roberts and several others mentioned seeing them in the 
spring. 
