WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.

[Plate XXXI.—Fig. 3.]

TURTON, Syst. 1, p. 515.*

THIS is a much rarer species than the preceding; though found frequenting the same places, and at the same seasons; differing, however, from the former in the deep black wings and tail, the large bed of white on the wing, the dark crimson of the plumage; and a less and more slender conformation of body. The bird represented in the plate was shot in the neighbourhood of the Great Pine swamp, in the month of September, by my friend Mr. Ainsley, a German naturalist, collector in this country for the Emperor of Austria. The individual of this species mentioned by Turton and Latham, had evidently been shot in moulting time. The present specimen was a male in full and perfect plumage.t

The White-winged Crossbill is five inches and a quarter long, and eight inches and a quarter in extent; wings and tail deep black, the former crossed with two broad bars of white; general colour of the plumage dark crimson, partially spotted with dusky; lores and frontlet pale brown; vent white, streaked with black; bill a brown horn colour, the mandibles crossing each other as in the preceding species, the lower sometimes bending to the right, sometimes to the left, usually to the left in the male, and to the right in the female of the American Crossbill. The

*We add the following synonymes.-Loxia leucoptera, GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 844. -Loxia falcirostra, LATH. Ind. Orn. 1, p. 371.—White-winged Cross-bill, LATH. Syn. 111, p. 108. 2. Id. Sup. p. 148. Arct. Zool. 11, No. 208. †This is a mistake; it was a young male.

VOL. II.-X

female of the present species will be introduced as soon as a good specimen can be obtained, with such additional facts relative to their manners as may then be ascertained.

BLACK-THROATED BUNTING.

SPECIES 1. E. AMERICANA.

[Plate III.-Fig. 2.]

Calandra pratensis, the May Bird, BARTRAM, p. 291.-Arct. Zool. 228.-Emberiza Americana, Ind. Orn. p. 411, 42.—PEALE'S Museum, No. 5952.*

Of this bird I have but little to say. They arrive in Pennsylvania, from the south, about the middle of May; abound in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia; and seem to prefer level fields, covered with rye-grass, timothy, or clover, where they build their nest, fixing it in the ground, and forming it of fine dried grass. The female lays five white eggs, sprinkled with specks and lines of black. Like most part of their genus, they are nowise celebrated for musical powers. Their whole song consists of five notes, or, more properly, of two notes; the first repeated twice and slowly, the second thrice, and rapidly, resembling chip, chip, che che che. Of this ditty, such as it is, they are by no means parsimonious, for, from their first arrival, for the space of two or three months, every level field of grain or grass is perpetually serenaded with chip, chip, che che che. In their shape and manners they very much resemble the Yellow-Hammer of Britain (E. citrinella); like them they are fond of mounting to the top of some half-grown tree, and there chirrupping for half an hour at a time. In travelling through different parts of New York and Pennsylvania, in spring and summer, wherever I came to level fields of deep grass, I have

We add the following synonymes:-Emberiza Imericana, GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 872.-LATH. Syn. 2, p. 197, pl. 44. Fringilla flaricollis, GMEL. Syst. 1, 926.

constantly heard these birds around me. In August they become mute, and soon after, that is, towards the beginning of September, leave us altogether.

The Black-throated Bunting is six inches and a half in length; the upper part of the head is of a dusky greenish yellow; neck dark 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 colour; 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 country 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 Bunting is never gregarious; but is almost always seen singly, or in pairs, or, at most, the individuals of one family together.

* LATH. Syn. Suppl. p. 158.

SPECIES 2. EMBERIZA ERYTHROPHTHALMA.

[Plate X.-Fig. 5. Male.]

Fringilla erythrophthalma, LINN. Syst. p. 318, 6.-Le Pinson de la Caroline, BRISs. Orn. 1, p. 169, 44.-BUFF. Ois. iv, p. 141.— LATH. II, p. 199, No. 45.-CATESB. Car. 1, Pl. 34.—PEALE'S Museum, No. 5970.

THIS is a very common, but humble and inoffensive species, frequenting close sheltered thickets, where it spends most of its time in scratching up the leaves for worms, and for the larvæ and eggs of insects. It is far from being shy, frequently suffering a person to walk round the bush or thicket where it is at work, without betraying any marks of alarm; and when disturbed, uttering the notes Towhè, repeatedly. At times the male mounts to the top of a small tree, and chants his few simple notes for an hour at a time. These are loud, not unmusical, something resembling those of the Yellow-hammer of Britain, but more mellow, and more varied. He is fond of thickets with a southern exposure, near streams of water, and where there is plenty of dry leaves; and is found, generally, over the whole United States. He is not gregarious, and you seldom see more than two together. About the middle or twentieth of April they arrive in Pennsylvania, and begin building about the first week in May. The nest is fixed on the ground among the dry leaves, near, and sometimes under, a thicket of briars, and is large and substantial. The outside is formed of leaves and pieces of grape-vine bark, and the inside of fine stalks of dry grass, the cavity completely sunk beneath the surface of the ground, and sometimes half covered above with dry grass or hay. The eggs are usually five, of a pale flesh colour, thickly marked with specks