388 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — FASSEBES — OSCINES. 
rich chestnut, other coverts and inner secondaries edged with paler. Bill dark horn-blue; 
feet brown. Length 6.50-7.00; extent 10.50-11.00; wing 3.25-3.50, sharp-pointed; tail 
2.50-2.75, emarginate. 9. Smaller; wing under 
3.00, etc.; above, like the but head and neck 
plainer ; below, less tinged with yellow, the black 
throat-patch wanting, replaced by sparse sharp 
maxillary and pectoral streaks, the wdng-coverts 
not chestnut, though so indicated by rufous edg- 
ings of the individual feathers. Young $ : Larger 
than the 9 , but in general similar ; throat-patch 
indicated by blackish feathers ; wing-coverts chest- 
nut. An elegant species, of trim form, tasteful 
colors and very smooth plumage, abundant in the 
fertile portions of the Eastern IT. S. ; N. to Massa- 
chusetts ; W. to Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and 
in the south to Arizona ; rather southerly, scarcely 
reaching the N. border of the U. S. anywhere; 
winters wholly extralimital ; breeds throughout its 
Fig. 247 — Black-throated Bunting, reduced. U. S. range. Not a good vocalist; the simple 
(Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) ditty sounds like chip- chip -cliee, chee, chee. Nest 
on the ground, or in a low bush ; eggs 4-5, normally plain greenish- white, rarely speckled ; 
0.80 X 0.65. 
288. S. town'sendi. (To J. K. Townsend.) Townsend's Bunting. Upper parts, head and 
neck all round, sides of body and forepart of breast, slate-blue ; back and upper surface of wings 
tinged with yellowish- broM^n ; interscapulars streaked with black ; superciliary and maxillary 
line, chin and throat and central line of under parts from breast to crissum, white ; edge of 
wing, and gloss on breast and middle of belly, yellow ; a black spotted line from lower comer of 
lower mandible down the side of the throat, connecting with a crescent of streaks in the upper 
edge of the slate portion of the breast." Pennsylvania ; one specimen known, a standing puzzle 
to ornithologists, in the uncertainty whether it is a " good species," or merely an abnormal plu- 
mage of the last, or a hybrid, possibly of S. americana 9 X J' Guiraca coerulea. While it is not 
improbable that the type came from an egg laid by S. americana, even such immediate ancestry 
would not forbid recognition of ^' specific characters ; " the solitary bird having been killed, it 
represents a species w^hich died at its birth. 
89. ZAMELO'DIA. (Gr. (d, za, much, very ; /xfXojSia, melodia, 
melody. Fig. 218.) Song Grosbeaks. Bill extremely 
heavy, with the lower mandible as deep as the upper or 
deeper, the commissural angle strong, far in advance of the 
feathered base of the bill, the rictus overhung with a few long 
stiff bristles. Wing with outer 4 primaries abruptly longer 
than 5th. TaD. shorter than wing, even or scarcely rounded. 
Feet short and stout. Embracing two large species, of beau- 
tiful and striking colors, the sexes dissimilar. $ black and 
white, with carmine-red or orange-brown ; 9 otherwise, but , , ^^S- - Bill of Zamelodia (Z. 
' o ^ * ' ^ ludoviciana, nat. size.) (Ad. nat del. 
with lining of wings yellow. Brilliant songsters ; nest in e. C.) 
trees and bushes ; eggs spotted. 
Analysis of Species. 
cf black and white, with carmine-red on breast and under wings. $ with lining of wings saffron-yellow. 
Eastern ludoviciana 289 
cf black and white, with orange-brown on breast : cf ? with lining of wings and belly yellow. Western 
melanocephala 290 
