44 
WHITE CROWNED BUNTING. 
lower parts of the state of Pennsylvania. Of three specimens 
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 discover 
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 the 
front to the hind head, pure white, bounded on each side by a 
stripe of black proceeding from each nostril ; and these again 
are bordered by a stripe of pure white passing over each eye 
to the hind head, where they meet ; below this, another narrow 
stripe of black passes from the posterior angle of the eye, 
widening as it descends to the hind head ; chin, white ; breast, 
sides of the neck, and upper parts of the same, very pale ash ; 
back, streaked laterally with dark rusty brown and pale bluish 
white ; wings, dusky, edged broadly with brown ; the greater 
and lesser coverts tipt broadly with white, forming two hand- 
some bands across the wing ; tertials, black, edged with brown 
and white ; rump and tail-coverts, drab, tipt with a lighter 
tint ; tail, long, rounded, dusky, and edged broadly with drab ; 
'* Arctic Zoology . 
