This peculiar, diminutive Finch is but 4.5 inches in length, and in plumage is black, white and gray. In restricted localities in southern Texas, they are not uncommon during the summer months. They build in bushes or young trees at low elevations making their nests of fine grasses or fibres, firmly woven together and usually placed in an upright crotch. The eggs are pale greenish blue, plentifully speckled with reddish and umber brown, and some markings of lilac. Size .65 × .45. Data.--Brownsville, Texas, May 7, 1892. Nest of fine fibre-like material lined with horse hairs, on limb of small tree in open woods near a lake of fresh water; 6 feet above ground. Collector, Frank B. Armstrong. This set is in the collection of Mr. C. W. Crandall. 603. GRASSQUIT. _Tiaris bicolor._ Range.--This small Finch is a Cuban species which casually strays to southern Florida. They are abundant on the island, building large arched nests of grass, with a small entrance on the side. They lay from three to six white eggs, specked with brown. Size .65 × .50. 603.1 MELODIOUS GRASSQUIT. _Tiaris canora._ Another Cuban Finch which has been taken in the Florida Keys. Eggs like the last. 604. DICKCISSEL. _Spiza americana._ Range.--Interior of the United States, breeding from the Gulf to northern United States, west to the Rockies, east to the Alleghanies. A sparrow-like Bunting with a yellow breast patch, line over eye and on side of throat; throat black, chin white and wing coverts chestnut. These sleek-coated, harmoniously colored birds are very common in dry bush-grown pastures and on the prairies. They are very persistent singers, and their song, while very simple, is welcome on hot days when other birds are quiet. They nest anywhere, as suits their fancy, on the ground, in clumps of grass, in clover fields, bushes, low trees, or in thistles. The nests are made of weeds, grasses, leaves and rootlets, lined with fine grass, and the three to five eggs are bluish white. Size .80 × .60. [Illustration 370: Painted Bunting.] [Illustration: Greenish blue.] [Illustration: Bluish white.] [Illustration: Sharpe's Seed-eater.] [Illustration: left hand margin.] Page 369 605. LARK BUNTING. _Calamospiza melanocorys._. Range.--A bird of the Plains, abundant from western Kansas to eastern Colorado and north to the Canadian border; winters in Mexico. These black and white birds have a sweet song which they often utter while on the wing after the manner of the Bobolink, all their habits being similar to those of this bird, except that this species likes the broad dry prairies where it nests on the ground under the protection of a tuft of grass or a low bush. Their four or five eggs are like those of the last but slightly larger. Size .85 × .65. Data.--Franklin Co., Kansas. 4 eggs. Nest in cornfield in a hollow on the ground at the base of a stalk; made of straw and weeds. TANAGERS. Family TANAGRIDÆ 607. WESTERN TANAGER. _Piranga ludoviciana._