Across the Fields. 231 



made of coarse grasses and feathers. From four to seven unmarked white 

 eggs are laid. They are about three quarters of an inch long and more than 

 half an inch broad. 



White-bellied Swallows are found throughout North America at large 

 as far north as Labrador and Alaska. They breed from New Jersey and 

 North Kansas northward, and winter from the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States southward. 



The Bahaman Swallow is nearly six inches long, and is of a curious 

 grass green, soft and metallic in character, somewhat iridescent, but not very 

 P . „ J. glossy, on the back. This color shades into bluish green 



caiiicheiidon cyaneoviridis ou the wiugs, rump, and tail. The entire lower parts and 

 (Bryant). sides of the head below the eyes are uniform pure white. 



The tail is very decidedly forked, the outer feathers being much the longer, 

 and recalling, in a way, the tail of the Barn Swallow. 



This bird occurs in the Bahama Islands, where it is resident and a com- 

 mon bird. The writer secured a male bird and saw one other at Garden 

 Key, Dry Tortugas, Florida, on April 7, i8go. 



Later, in the summer of 1892 a young bird in its first plumage was taken 

 in the vicinity of Tarpon Springs, Florida. 



It seems probable that the birds occur rarely and breed on the Florida 

 Keys and the southern coast of the Peninsula. 



The Black-throated Bunting does not occur plentifully in the Coast 



States of the region we are dealing with, and it is not a noticeable factor in the 



bird fauna east of the Alleghanies except locally, though 



Dickcissel. [^ ^a^g formerly common in the region from Massachusetts 



Spiza americana (Gmel.). ^ 



southward. 



It is still an abundant bird in the Mississippi Valley, where it breeds 

 from Texas to Ontario. It winters from parts of Mexico and through Cen- 

 tral America to Northern South America. 



They are birds of the open grass fields, nesting in low bushes or on the 

 ground. 



The birds are robust in form and about six inches in length. Adult 

 males have the head and sides of the face slaty gray ; the back is striped with 

 black on a brownish gray ground, and the rump is grayish brown unmarked. 



