gO BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 



neatly woven in a circular form, and is partly imbedded in the soil, and 

 sheltered or concealed by a tuft of herbage. The eggs, usually five, are six 

 and a half eighths in length, four and three-fourths in breadth, of a sullied 

 white, generally sprinkled with faint touches of different tints of umber. In 

 Pennsylvania, it seldom rears more than one brood in the season; but in the 

 Texas, I have reason to believe that it raises two. 



The flight of this bird, when it has settled in a place, is usually of short 

 extent. The male, while passing to and from the nest, exhibits a quivering 

 motion of the wings. The female seldom shews this, unless when her 

 property is in danger from intruders. While travelling, which they always 

 do by day, they pass high over the trees, in flocks of thirty or forty, which 

 suddenly alight at the approach of night, and throw themselves into the 

 most thickly-leaved trees, where they repose until dawn. I have surprised 

 them in such situations both in Kentucky and in Louisiana, and on shooting 

 into the place to which they had betaken themselves, although I could not 

 see them, have procured several at one discharge; which proved in one 

 instance to be males, and in the other females, thus shewing that the sexes 

 travel separately. 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 Natchez, in 

 the State of Mississippi, in meadows, in company with Bob-o-links, 

 Dolichonyx oryzivora. On the ground they leap or hop, but never walk. 

 Their flesh is good, especially that of the young birds. 



Breeds abundantly in Texas and all the Western Prairies; less so from 

 Virginia to Massachusetts. Rare in Ohio and Kentucky. Migratory. 



Black-throated Bunting, Emberiza Americana, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 411. 



Fringilla Americana, Bonap. Syn., p. 107. 



Black-throated Bunting, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 461. 



Black-throated Bunting, Emberiza Americana, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 579. 



Bill very stout; tail-feathers acute. Male with the upper part of the head, 

 the cheeks, and the hind neck dark ash-grey, faintly streaked with dusky; 

 loral space whitish, a band over the eye, and a patch below the cheek, 

 yellow; the fore part of the back greyish-brown, with longitudinal streaks 

 of brownish-black, the hind part brownish-grey; the smaller wing-coverts 

 bright chestnut; chin white, throat black; the lower neck and part of the 

 breast, yellow, the rest of the breast and abdomen, white. Female similar 

 to the male, but paler, and without the black patch on the throat. 



Male, 6£, log. 



In an adult male, the roof of the mouth has anteriorly three longitudinal 



