NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 335 



603. Euetheia bicolor (Linn.) [253.] 



Grassqnit. 



Hab. Bahamas; accidental or casual in Southern Florida. 



This is the Black-faced Grassquit which is common in various 

 islands of the Bahama group. It appears to be accidental in Florida. 

 Said to construct a large domed-shaped nest with a lateral entrance. 

 It is built in bushes and low shrubbery. 



Eggs three to five, white or greenish-white, speckled with reddish ; 

 average size .65 x .50. Mr. Norris has two sets in his collection. One 

 of three was taken near Fort Nassau, on one of the Bahamas. The 

 nest was made of dried grasses. The eggs are white, speckled and 

 spotted, principally at the larger end, with walnut-brown and lavender- 

 gray; sizes .68 x .51, .69 x .52, .67 x .54. The other set consisting of two 

 eggs, was collected in the same locality, on March 30, 1884. They are 

 white, sprinkled and speckled with lavender-gray and cinnamon ; they 

 measure .71 x .52, .69 x .52. 



604. Spiza americana (Gmel.) [254.] 



Sickcissel. 



Hab. Eastern United States (chiefly west of the Alleghanies) to the Rocky Mountains, north to 

 Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc., south in winter to Northern South America. 



Known as the Black-throated Bunting, "Little Field L,ark," and 

 "Judas-bird." In general appearance it looks like the European House 

 Sparrow, P. domesticus, averaging a trifle larger. The favorite 

 resorts of the Black-throated Bunting are pastures with a sparse growth 

 of stunted bushes and clover fields. In these places its unmusical, 

 monotonous song may be heard throughout the day during the breed- 

 ing season. Its song is utterred from a tall weed, stump or fence-stake 

 and is a very pleasing ditty when its sound is heard coming far over 

 grain fields and meadows in the blaze of the noon-day sun, when all is 

 hushed and most other birds have retired to shadier places. 



The nest of the Black-throated Bunting is built on the ground, in 

 trees and in bushes. In Central Ohio I have never found the nest in 

 any other position than on the ground under the shelter of a tuft of 

 grass or bush. In Western Illinois, Mr. Poling states that they are 

 placed in the tall grass or in clover fields. Mr. L. Jones informs me 

 that in Iowa the nest may be found almost anywhere, not above twenty 

 feet in trees and bushes, or on the ground in prairie lands. Nesting is 

 begun in May, and the second nests are built in July or August. The 

 materials are leaves, grasses, rootlets, corn husks and weed stems ; the 

 lining is of fine grasses, and often horse hair. On the whole the nest 

 of this species is a compact structure. 



The eggs are four or five in number, almost exactly like those of 



