BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 



61 



ridges, and two lateral grooves; the palate descends obliquely, and at its 

 anterior part has a distinct prominence of a softish texture; from which there 

 passes backwards and outwards, a large soft ridge on each side of the nasal 

 aperture, which is linear and papillate. The tongue is 5^ twelfths long, 

 narrow, deep, trigonal, deeply emarginate and papillate at the base, soft for 

 half its length, convex and hard towards the end, which terminates with 

 bristly points. The oesophagus, a b c d, is %\ inches 

 long, dilated along the greater part of the neck into 

 a kind of crop, b, 5 twelfths in diameter, lying on the 

 right side along with the trachea. The proventriculus, 

 c d, is not much enlarged. The stomach, ef, is a strong 

 gizzard, of a broad elliptical form, 7J twelfths in 

 length, Gj twelfths in breadth. Its contents are small 

 hard seeds, a few remains of insects, and some par- 

 ticles of sand. The epithelium is very tough, longi- 

 tudinally rugous, and of a dark reddish-brown colour. 

 The intestine, f g h, is 8|- inches long, its greatest 

 diameter 2 twelfths. The rectum, j k I, is 9 twelfths 

 long; the cceca, j, extremely small, being lj twelfths 

 long and ^ twelfth in diameter. 



The trachea, which is 1 inch 10 twelfths long, is 

 rather wide, flattened, of uniform diameter, measuring 

 If inches across, the rings about 55, and ossified. The 

 contractor muscles are of moderate strength; the 

 sterno-tracheal slender; and there are four pairs of 

 inferior laryngeal. The bronchi have about 15 half 

 rings. 



In its habits, this bird closely resembles the Common or Corn Bunting of 

 Europe, its flight and notes being almost the same. Like it, our bird alights 

 on walls, fences, detached rocks, or eminences of any kind, where it is often 

 seen even in the immediate neighbourhood of our cities. Indeed, I have 

 found it in full song perched on the trees that ornament the squares of 

 Washington city. In the form of its bill it also agrees with the Buntings, 

 although that organ is proportionally longer and less attenuated toward the 

 end. If, on the principle of minute division, it is not admitted into the 

 genus Emberiza, it must at least occupy a place in its immediate proximity. 



The plants represented are the Phalaris arundinacea and Antirrhinum 

 linaria, both common in many parts of the United States, as well as in 

 Europe; the former growing in wet meadows and by the sides of rivers, the 

 latter in fields and waste places, a troublesome weed, very difficult to be 

 extirpated. 



Vol. III. 10 



