118 SOME ERRORS REGARDING 
and is composed outwardly of flax, and lined with fine dry 
grass. I have also known it to build in the hollow of 
an apple tree. The eggs, generally five, are blue, with a 
blotch of purple at the great end.” 
To this we must add the negative evidence, that we 
- have never found this bird breeding as above described, 
and, so far as we know, the eggs are invariably white, 
with only a very light tinge of bine, and they never have 
purple markings at the greater end, nor have they any 
spots or markings whatever. 
One more remarkable case of incorrectness on the part 
of Wilson, and we pass to consider other writers. Speak- 
ing of the nest and eggs of the Black-throated Bunting 
(Luspiza Americana), he says, “They seem to prefer — 
level fields covered with rye grass, timothy, or clover, 
where ead build their nest, fixing it on the ground, and 
forming it of fine dry grass. The female lays five white 
eggs, Daa with specks and lines of black.” 
The position of the nest and materials is, in most cases, 
as stated; but the eggs are not white, and are unspotted. 
They are of one unvarying shade of green, strongly tend- 
ing to blue. Occasionally the nests are built more elab- 
orately than others, and on low bushes or tufts of grass 
a foot or two above the ground. 2 
Mr. Nuttall, of all our writers who have written so : 
