Alabama, 19 15. 43 



DICKCISSEL 



^p%lHE male of this species is beautifully blended with yellow, 

 * 1 white and gray, and has a black throat patch and brown 

 Belli shoulders. The female is duller. In the middle portions of 

 the United States these birds, or Black-throated Buntings, as 

 they are commonly called, are very numerous, frequenting dry, 

 bushy fields or prairies. They are very persistent songsters, al- 

 though their song is weak and has little melody. In July and August, 

 when many birds are silent, they continue their plaintive chant 

 even on the most sultry days. 



The song is a simple chanting, "chip, chip, che-che-che." The 

 nest is made either on the ground, in bushes or thistles or in trees, 

 being constructed of weeds, grasses, rootlets, corn husks, etc. There 

 are four or five eggs in number, which are plain bluish white and 

 hardly distinguishable from those of the Bluebird. 



The Dickcissel breed in North America east of the Rockies, 

 from the Gulf States north to the northern part of the United States ; 

 they are rare in the Atlantic States north to Connecticut. 



— Bird Guide. 



