those of the Emberiza miliaria of Europe. Its unmusical notes are almost continuously repeated from sunrise to sunset. When the female is startled from her nest she creeps quietly away through the grass, and then hides herself, making no complaint, and not showing herself even if her treasures are taken from her. Their nests are constructed of coarse grasses and stems, lined with finer and similar materials. They are, in certain localities, placed on the ground, but more frequently, in many parts of the country, they are built in positions above the ground. This is almost invariably the case where they nest among the tall coarse grasses of the prairies. My attention was first called to this peculiarity by Dr. J. W. Velie, then of Rock Island, Ill. He informed me that in no instance had he found the nest of this species on the ground, but always raised a few inches above it. It was usually constructed of the tops of the red-top grasses, worked in among a bunch of thick grass, so as to make the nest quite firm. The meadows in which Dr. Velie found these nests were quite dry, so that there was no necessity for their thus building clear from the ground in order to escape being wet. I was afterwards informed by the late Mr. Robert Kennicott that his experience in regard to the nests of these birds had been invariably the same. Dr. P. R. Hoy, of Racine, is confident that these birds in Wisconsin never nest on the ground, or else very rarely, as he has never noticed their doing so. He writes that during one season he visited and made notes of nineteen different nests. Ten of these were built in gooseberry-bushes, four on thorn-bushes, three among blackberry-brambles, one on a raspberry-bush, and one on a wild rose. None were within a foot of the ground, and some were six feet from it. They have two broods in a season.
On the other hand, Mr. Ridgway informs me that in Southern Illinois the nest of this species is always placed on the ground, usually in a meadow, and that he has never found its nest placed anywhere else than on the ground, in a tuft of grass or clover. Professor Baird has had a similar experience in Pennsylvania. Mr. B. F. Goss found them nesting both in bushes and on the ground at Neosho Falls, Kansas.
The eggs of this species are of a uniform light blue color, similar in shade to the eggs of the common Bluebird, as also to those of the Calamospiza bicolor. They vary considerably in size, the smallest measuring .80 of an inch in length by .60 in breadth, while the larger and more common size is .90 by .70 of an inch.
Euspiza townsendi, Bonap.
TOWNSEND’S BUNTING.
Emberiza townsendi, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 183; V, 90, pl. cccc.—Ib. Syn. 1839.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 62, pl. clvii.—Nuttall, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 528. Euspiza townsendi, Bon. List, 1838.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 495.
Sp. Char. Male. Upper parts, head and neck all round, sides of body and forepart of breast, slate-blue; the back and upper surface of wings tinged with yellowish-brown; the
interscapular region streaked with black. A superciliary and maxillary line, chin and throat, and central line of under parts from the breast to crissum, white; the edge of the wing, and a gloss on the breast and middle of belly, yellow. A black spotted line from the lower corner of the 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. Length, 5.75; wing, 2.86; tail, 2.56.
Hab. Chester County, Penn. But one specimen known (in the Mus. Smith.).
It is still a question whether this is a distinct species, or only a variety of E. americana. There is, however, little ground for the last supposition, although its rarity is a mystery.