BLACK-THROATED BUNTING 



55 



ash; breast, inside shoulders of the wing, line over the eye and at 

 the lower angle of the bill yellow; chin, and space between the bill 

 and eye white; throat covered with a broad, oblong, somewhat 

 heart-shaped patch of black, bordered on each side with white; 

 back, rump and tail ferruginous, the first streaked with black; 

 wings deep dusky, edged with a light clay color; lesser coverts and 

 whole shoulder of the wing bright bay; belly and vent dull white; 

 bill light blue, dusky above, strong and powerful for breaking 

 seeds; legs and feet brown; iris of the eye hazel. The female 

 differs from the male in having little or no black on the breast, 

 nor streak of yellow over the eye ; beneath the eye she has a dusky 

 streak, running in the direction of the jaw. In all those I opened 

 the stomach was filled with various seeds, gravel, eggs of insects^ 

 and sometimes a slimy kind of earth or clay. 



This bird has been figured by Latham, Pennant, and several 

 others. The former speaks of a bird which he thinks is either the 

 same, or nearly resembling it, that resides in summer in the coun- 

 try about Hudson's Bay, and is often seen associating in flights with 

 the geese ;'^ this habit, however, makes me suspect that it must be 

 a different species; for while with us here the Black-throated Bun- 

 ting is never gregarious; but is almost ahvays seen singly, or in 

 pairs, or, at most, the individuals of one family together. 



* Lath. Syn. Supp]. p. 158. 



