OF NEW ENGLAND. 229 
Superciliary line, and edge of the wing, bright yellow; breast 
paler. Other under parts, white; lower throat with a broad 
black patch, forming a cross-bar. Upper parts, dull brown; 
interscapulars black-streaked. Wings with bright chestnut, 
wanting in the 9, who has less yellow, and no black beneath 
except in streaks. 
(b). The nest is usually built upon the ground in dry fields, 
and the eggs are bright, light blue, green-tinged, averaging 
*75 X ‘55 of an inch. 
(c). The Black-throated Buntings are extremely rare so far 
to the northward as Massachusetts, where, says Dr. Brewer, 
only two of their nests have been found, to which may now 
be added a third, which I myself found with fresh eggs, in the 
early part of June, at Canton. It was in a dry grassy field, 
near cultivated land, and such a place as these birds are said 
usually to inhabit. The female left her nest on my approach, 
and, after running through the grass, perched on a low fence, 
from which she, together with the male, watched me silently. 
These were the only living specimens that I have ever seen. 
The Black-throated Buntings, says Wilson, “ arrive in Penn- 
sylvania from'the south about the middle of May; abound in 
the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, and seem to prefer level 
fields covered with rye-grass, timothy, or clover, * * *.” They 
are ‘never gregarious; but” are “‘ almost always seen singly, 
or in pairs, or, at most, the individuals of one family together.” 
** 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, che che ché. Of this 
ditty, such as it is, they are by no means parsimonious,” and 
like “the Yellow-Hammer of Britain * * * they are fond of 
mounting to the top of some half-grown tree, and there chir- 
ruping for half an hour at a time.” Wilson’s description of 
their eggs is wholly incorrect. 
XX. CYANOSPIZA 
(A) cyanea. Indigo Bird. 
(A common summer-resident in southern New England, but 
less so to the northward.) 
