44 



WHITE-CROWNED BUNTING. 



WHITE-CKOWNED BUNTING. (Emberiza leucophrys.) 



PLATE XXXI— Fig. 4. 



Turton, Syst. p. 536. — Peale's Museum, No. 6587. 



ZONOTBICHIA LEUCOPHRYS.— SwAnrsoN. 



Fringilla leucophrys, Bonap. Synop. p. 107. — Fringilla (Zonotrichia) leucophrys, 

 North. Zool. ii. p. 255. 



This beautifully marked species is one of the rarest of its 

 tribe in the United States, being chiefly confined to the 

 northern districts, or higher interior parts of the country, 

 except in severe winters, when some few wanderers appear in 

 the lower parts of the state of Pennsylvania. Of three speci- 

 mens of this bird, the only ones I have yet met with, the first 

 was caught in a trap near the city of New York, and lived 

 with me several months. It had no song, and, as I afterwards 

 discovered, was a female. Another, a male, was presented to 

 me by Mr Michael of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The third, a 

 male, and in complete plumage, was shot in the Great Pine 

 Swamp, in the month of May, and is faithfully represented in 

 the plate. It appeared to me to be unsuspicious, silent, and 

 solitary ; flitting in short flights among the underwood and 

 piles of prostrate trees, torn up by a tornado, that some years 

 ago passed through the swamp. All my endeavours to dis- 

 cover the female or nest were unsuccessful. 



From the great scarcity of this species, our acquaintance 

 with its manners is but very limited. Those persons who 

 have resided near Hudson's Bay, where it is common, inform 

 us, that it makes its nest in June, at the bottom of willows, 

 and lays four chocolate-coloured eggs. Its flight is said to 

 be short and silent ; but, when it perches, it sings very 

 melodiously.* 



The white-crowned bunting is seven inches long, and ten 

 inches in extent ; the bill, a cinnamon brown ; crown, from 



* Arctic Zoology. 



