BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 581 
parately. On such occasions, the survivors would sally forth, make a 
few rapid evolutions, and alight on the same tree. 
In spring, I have found them, on two or three occasions, near Nat- 
chez, in the State of Mississippi, in meadows, in company with Bob-o- 
links, Emberiza Oryzivora. On the ground they leap or hop, but never 
walk. Their flesh is good, especially that of the young birds. 
Emseriza Americana, Gnel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 872.—LZath. Ind. Ornith. vol. 1. 
p. 411. 
Briacx-THROATED Buntine, Empertza Americana, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. i. 
p. 54, pl. 3, fig. 2, male. 
Frineitta Americana, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 107. 
Brack-THRoaTED Buntine, Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 461. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXXIV. Fig. 1. 
Bill of moderate length, stout, conical, compressed toward the end ; 
upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly declinate and convex, the 
ridge indistinct, the sides convex, the edges a little inflected, ascend- 
ing to beneath the nostrils, then descending, with a slight notch close 
to the narrow tip: lower mandible with the angle short and wide, the 
dorsal line ascending and very slightly convex, the ridge broad at the 
base, the sides convex, the edges ascending at the base, then straight 
and involute to the end, the tip narrow. Nostrils basal, roundish in 
the fore part of the very short and wide nasal depression. 
Head large, ovate; neck very short; body rather stout. Feet of 
moderate length, rather strong ; tarsus of ordinary length, compressed, 
with seven anterior scutella, thin-edged behind; toes rather large ; the 
hind one strong and longer than the lateral, which are equal, the third 
much longer, and united to the fourth at the base. Claws long, arched, 
much compressed, acute. 
Plumage soft and blended, but firm. Wings of moderate length, 
acute ; the first quill longest, the second slightly shorter, the other pri- 
maries graduated; secondaries slightly emarginate. ‘Tail of moderate 
length, emarginate, of twelve rather narrow, obliquely pointed feathers. 
Bill light‘ blue ; iris hazel; feet light brownish-red, claws of the 
same colour. The upper part of the head, the cheeks and the hind 
neck are ash-grey, the feathers on the head with a central blackish 
streak ; loral space, a band over the eye, and a shorter one beneath it, 
