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YELLOW-WINGED BUNTING. 



- ; -Emberiza passerina, Wils. 

 PLATE CLXIL— Male. 



This is another of those remarkable species which pass unobserved from 

 the Mexican dominions and some of the West India Islands, to the middle 

 portions of our Atlantic States. From Maryland to Maine it is found in 

 considerable numbers, and is not uncommon in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 

 New York, and Connecticut. In all the States it prefers the neighbourhood 

 of the coast and a light sandy soil. It arrives in the latter districts about the 

 10th of May, and throws itself into the open newly-ploughed fields, and 

 those covered with the valuable red clover. It is never found in the wood- 

 lands. Its food consists of such insects and larvae as are found on the ground, 

 together with the seeds of grasses and other plants. 



Its flight is low, short, and performed by a kind of constant tremor of 

 the wings, resembling that of a young bird. It alights on the tops of low 

 bushes, fence-rails, and tall grasses, to sing its unmusical ditty, composed of 

 a few notes weakly enunciated at intervals, but sufficing to manifest its 

 attachment to its mate. Almost unregarded, it raises two broods in the 

 season, perhaps three when it has chosen the warmer sandy soils in the 

 vicinity of the sea, where it is evidently more abundant than in the interior 

 of the country. 



The nest of the Yellow-winged Sparrow is as simple as its owner is inno- 

 cent and gentle. It is placed on the ground, and is formed of light dry 

 grasses, with a scanty lining of withered fibrous roots and horse hair. The 

 female deposits her first egg about the 20th of May. The eggs are four or 

 five, of a dingy white, sprinkled with brown spots. The young follow their 

 parents on the ground for a short time, after which they separate and search 

 for food singly. This species, indeed, never congregates, as almost all others 

 of its tribe do, before they depart from us, but the individuals seem to move 

 off in a sulky mood, and in so concealed a way, that their winter quarters 

 are yet unknown. 



The appearance of this humble species on the shores of the Columbia 

 river renders its geographical distribution as difficult of comprehension as 

 that of some other species, which, like it, discard as it were extensive tracts, 

 and appear in distant regions for a season. Thus some of this species, on 



