FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 
377 
GENUS SPIZA. 
604. Spiza amerieana ( Gmel. ). Dickcissel. 
Rill stout, conical, compressed; wing- long 1 and pointed ; tarsus longer 
than middle toe with claw. Adult male: under parts whit¬ 
ish, with variable black throat patch and yellow breast, 
yellow sometimes deepening to salmon in the breeding 
season; wing with deep rufous patch; forehead, lores, 
superciliary, and malar stripe washed with yellow; head 
and neck gray, top of head usually olivaceous; back 
brownish, streaked with black. Adult female: similar, 
but duller, yellow more restricted, often wanting, except 
on breast; throat white, bordered by dusky streaks; the black of the 
male usually wanting. Young in first winter: like adult female, but 
everywhere tinged with dull buffy or clay color. Male: length (skins) 
5.55-6.31, wing 3.11-3.38, tail 2.17-2.42, bill .58-.61. Female : length 
(skins) 5.50-5.74, wing 2.94-3.05, tail 1.97-2.17, bill .50-.56. 
Distribution. — Breeds chiefly in Upper Sonoran zone of the central 
eastern United States from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, 
Colorado, and Wyoming; and from Ontario south to Texas; casually 
southwest to Arizona and Lower California; migrates to northern South 
America. 
Nest. — Largely of dried grasses, built near the ground in bushes or 
low weeds, on meadows or prairies. Eggs : 3 to 5, plain pale blue. 
Food. — Largely grasshoppers and crickets; also grain and weed seed. 
When in southern Texas during the spring migration we met with 
flocks of dickcissels on their way to the north. In places on the 
open prairie two or three hundred would be sitting in rows on the 
wire fences like swallows on telegraph wires. They could be re¬ 
cognized at a distance by their outlines—round heads and straight 
hanging tails. When not in compact flocks they were scattered 
through the chapparal singing on the tops of the bushes. Their song 
had a mouthed, furry quality, but was none the less sunny and enjoy¬ 
able. When they are on their breeding grounds their song is one of 
the pleasantest features of the big grain fields. 
GENUS CALAMOSPIZA. 
605. Calamospiza melanocorys Stejn. Lark Bunting. 
Bill conical, much deeper than broad at base, gently convex at tip and 
base, nearly straight in middle ; wing about four times as long as tarsus, 
its tip almost truncated; tail about three fourths as long as wing, much 
more than basal half overlaid by upper coverts; slightly double-rounded 
or nearly even, feathers rather narrow. Adult male in summer: whole bird 
black or slaty except for white patch on wings and sometimes white marks 
on tail feathers. Adult female in summer: above grayish brown, streaked 
with blackish; wing patch restricted and tinged with huffy ; tail except 
middle feathers spotted with white; under parts white, streaked on breast 
and sides. Adult male in winter: similar to female, but wings and tail 
blackish instead of brown, and feathers of lower parts black beneath the 
surface and showing through more or less; chin black. Adult female in 
winter: like summer female, but less grayish and more buffy. Young: 
Fig. 466. 
