Genxjs XXXVI. EMBEKIZA. BUNTING-. 

 Species I. E. AMERICANA. 



BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 



[Plate in. Fig. 2.] 



Calandra pratensis, the May Bird, Bartram, p. 291. — Ard. Zool. 228. — Emberiza 

 Americana, hid. Orn. p. 411, 42.* 



Of this bird I have but little to say. They arrive in Pennsylvania, 

 from the south, about the middle of May ; abound in the neighborhood 

 of Philadelphia ; and seem to prefer level fields, covered with rye-grass, 

 timothy, or clover, where they build their nest, fixing it in the ground, 

 and forming it of fine dried grass. The female lays five white eggs, 

 sprinkled with specks and lines of black. Like most part of their 

 genus, they are nowise celebrated for musical powers. Their whole 

 song consists of five notes, or, more properly, of two notes ; the first 

 repeated twice and slowly, the second thrice, and rapidly, resembling 

 chip, chip, ehe che che. Of this ditty, such as it is, they are by no 

 means parsimonious, for, from their first arrival, for the space of two 

 or three months, every level field of grain or grass is perpetually 

 serenaded with chip, chip, che ehe che. In their shape and manners 

 they very much resemble the Yellow-Hammer of Britain (JJ. citrinella) ; 

 like them they are fond of mounting to the top of some half-grown tree, 

 and there chirrupping for half an hour at a time. In travelling through 

 difierent parts of New York and Pennsylvania, in spring and summer, 

 wherever I came to level fields of deep grass, I have constantly heard 

 these birds around me. In August they become mute, and soon after, 

 that is, towards the beginning of September, leave us altogether. 



The Black-throated Bunting is six inches and a half in length ; the 

 upper part of the head is of a dusky greenish yellow ; neck dark ash ; 

 breast, inside shoulders of the wing, line over the eye p,nd at the lower 

 angle of the bill yellow ; chin, and space between the bill and eye 

 white ; throat covered with a broad, oblong, somewhat heart-shaped 

 patch of black, bordered on each side with white ; back, rump and tail 

 ferruginous, the first streaked with black ; wings deep dusky, edged 

 with a light clay color ; lesser coverts and whole shoulder of the wing 



* We add the following synonymes : — Emberiza Americana, Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 

 872.— Lath. Syn. 2, p. 197, pi. 44. Fringilla flaricollis, Gmel. SysL i., 926. 



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