PASSERES-FRINCIRLIDVE -EMBERIZA. 
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THE BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 
EMBERIZA AMERICANA. 
PLATE XLIX. FIG. 3 (Mile). 
(STATE COLLECTIOIN ) 
Emberiza americana, Gmelin. Black-throated Bunting, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p.363, pi. 17 (inale). 
Calandra pratensis, May-bird. Bartram, p. 291. 
E. americana. Wilson, Orn. Vol. L, p. 51, pi. 3, fig. 2 (male). 
F. (Spiza) id. Bonaparte, Annals Lyceum N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 107. Nuttall, Manual Ornith. Vol. J, p. 461. 
Audubon, folio, pi. 384. 
E. id. Kjrtland, Zool. Ohio, p. 183. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 3, p. 58, pi. 156 (male anil female). 
E. id. Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 100. 
Characteristics. Breast, line over the eye, and at the base of the bill, yellow. Chin 
white ; throat with a black patch ; wing-coverts, bright bay. Female: 
throat without the black patch. Length, 6h inches. 
Description. Bill stout, distinctly notched near the tip: edges of the lower mandible 
narrowed in. First quill slightly longest. Tail 1'5 longer than the tips of the closed wings, 
emarginate, with somewhat pointed feathers. Hind toe and claw 0 - 7. 
Color. Head olive brown, with black or dusky streaks : back of the sides and neck slate- 
blue ; interscapular region brown, streaked with black ; rump brownish olive. Beneath, the 
black throat often spotted with white, and occasionally one or more black spots on the breast. 
Flanks light brown. Shoulder and base of the under wing-coverts sulphur-yellow ; the smaller 
wing-coverts bright bay or chesnut. Chin white. Female , rvith merely a tinge of yellow 
over and beneath the eye, on the breast, shoulder, and under wing-coverts. Chin buff: a 
few narrow dark lines on the breast, but these are often wanting. Head and neck brown 
varied with black. 
Length, 6‘0-7-5. Alar extent, lOO-ll'O. 
The Black-throated Bunting reaches this State from the South about the middle or latter 
end of May, and rarely advances farther east than Massachusetts. It breeds in every part of 
the Atlantic and Western districts. Its nest is on the ground, containing about five dusky 
white eggs with brown spots and lines. Its food consists of caterpillars, beetles, the canker- 
worm and other destructive insects. In winter it feeds probably on the harder seeds, for 
which its robust bill appears well adapted. It appears well worthy to be classed under a 
separate genus, allied in some respects both to Plectrophanes and Coccothraustes. 
Charles Bonaparte has suggested the name of Euspiza, but I can no where find its charac¬ 
ters. This species has been observed in Texas and Mexico. 
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