24 



THE OOLOGIST. 



The Black-throated Bunting. 



{Eusjnza americana.) 



^DITOR OoLOGiST : — Last season I 

 sent you a few notes on the breeding 

 habits of this bird as observed by my- 

 self in this vicinity, and as you were kind 

 enough to consider them worthy a place in 

 your paper, I wish to add a few words on 

 the same subject this year. 



The birds first make their appearance 

 about the 10th of May, and the observer is 

 made aware of their presence by hearing 

 the song of the male as he perches on some 

 fence post or hedge. After once having be- 

 gun to return from their winter home, they 

 rapidly increase in numbers until they are 

 the most prominent of our birds in this vi- 

 cinity. Nearly every bush in a hedge has 

 its Bunting, and their incessant muttering 

 (more like the complaining note of the 

 Meadow Lark in miniature than anything 

 I can compare it with) fills the air in all 

 directions. 



They begin building about the middle of 

 May and soon have the complement of eggs 

 laid. The first nest collected this year was 

 taken on May 30 and contained four eggs. 

 The first part of the season they approached 

 more nearly the style of building attributed 

 to them by Dr. Cones, viz : on the ground 

 and in clumps of grass a few inches up. 

 All the nests found at first were in hedges 

 close to the ground, and completely hidden 

 in the long dead grass. Last year, of ten 

 or twelve nests found, all, with one excep- 

 tion were built in hedges in plain sight, from 

 three to five feet up. This year, on the 

 contrary, I found no nests in such situations 

 until the latter part of June, when the 

 hedges were leaved out, and it was extreme- 

 ly hard to see the nests. 



I collected fourteen nests this year, all 

 but seven being found in osage hedges from 

 one to five feet up ; of the seven exceptions 

 one was found in a clump of grass, another 

 in a small cedar tree in a nursery, three 

 others in small fir trees near the rail-road, 

 one in a raspberry bush close to the track. 



and one in the grass close to the road. The 

 nests contained from three to five eggs, the 

 average number apparently being four. One 

 nest contained four eggs larger than usual, 

 and spotted with light lilac spots. I have 

 seen eggs of this bird marked with well de- 

 fined spots of black, but this is the first set 

 I ever found which were spotted. 



The materials used in the construction 

 of the nests are dried grass with occasion- 

 ally corn-husks and bits of paper, and dried 

 weeds ; the nest is sometimes lined with 

 black horse-hair, but is often without any 

 special attempt at lining. 



I think the bird must lay two sets of eggs 

 in a season, as I found eggs nearly ready 

 to hatch on June 4, and fresh eggs on July 

 10 and 11. I also found nests with young 

 birds about the middle of June, and a nest 

 with young just hatched on July 9. 



The bird is about as large as a Song 

 Sparrow. Back, brown with a few streaks 

 of black near the neck ; a yellow stripe ex- 

 tends from the bill over the eye, and a 

 white stripe begins at the eye and runs to 

 back of head; thioat white, with black 

 spot ; breast yellowish ; belly white, streak- 

 ed with black at sides. Female same as 

 the male, except the black throat spot. 



Hoping that the above may be of some 

 interest to your .readers, I will close. 

 Peotone, Ills. " Euspiza." 



New Birds. — The following birds new 

 to our fauna are described in the Nuttall 

 Bulletin ; Allen's Humming Bird i^Sel- 

 asphorus alleni) , by H. W. Henshaw ; 

 White-fronted Pigeon {Leptoptila albi- 

 frons), by George B. Sennett ; and a hyb- 

 rid Grouse called by William Brewster 

 Oupidonia ctipidim-columbiana. 



Dk. Coues has entered into the task of 

 publishing a work on North American 

 mammals. We expect this will be a work 

 of great worth. It certainly will form a 

 book that has lonsr been needed. 



