194 
COW BUNTING. 
the plate; it is evidently that of an Emheriza; the tail is slightly 
forked; legs and claws glossy black, strong and muscular; iris 
of the eye dark hazel. Catesby says of this bird, “ it is all over 
“ of a brown colour, and something lighter below;” a description 
that applies only to the female, and has been repeated, in nearly 
the same words, by almost all succeeding ornithologists. The 
young male birds are at first altogether brown, and for a month, 
or more, are naked of feathers round the eye and mouth; the 
breast is also spotted like that of a Thrush, with light drab and 
darker streaks. In about two months after they leave the nest, 
the black commences at the shoulders of the wings, and gradu- 
ally increases along each side, as the young feathers come out, 
until the bird appears mottled on the back and breast with deep 
black and light drab. At three months the colours of the plu- 
mage are complete, and, except in moulting, are subject to no 
periodical change. 
