or, in scientific terms, _Calamospiza melanocorys_. The male is a trig
and handsome fellow, giving you the impression of a well-dressed
gentleman in his Sunday suit of black, "with more or less of a slaty
cast," as Ridgway puts it, the middle and greater wing-coverts bearing a
conspicuous white patch which is both a diagnostic marking and a real
ornament. In flight this patch imparts to the wing a filmy, almost
semi-transparent, aspect. The bunting is about the size of the eastern
bobolink, and bears some resemblance to that bird; but bobolink he is
not, although sometimes mistaken for one, and even called by that name
in Colorado. The fact is, those wise men, the systematists, have decided
that the bobolink belongs to the family _Icteridae_, which includes,
among others, the blackbirds and orioles, while the lark bunting
occupies a genus all by himself in the family _Fringillidae_--that is,
the family of finches, sparrows, grosbeaks, and towhees. Therefore, the
two birds can scarcely be called second cousins. The bunting has no
white or buff on his upper parts.

Sitting on a sunny slope one June evening, I surrendered myself to the
spell of the bunting, and endeavored to make an analysis of his
minstrelsy. First, it must be said that he is as fond as the bobolink of
rehearsing his arias on the wing, and that is, perhaps, the chief reason
for his having been mistaken for that bird by careless observers.
Probably the major part of his solos are recited in flight, although he
can sit quietly on a weed-stalk or a fence-post and sing as sweetly, if
not as ecstatically, as if he were curveting in the air. During this
aerial performance he hovers gracefully, bending his wings downward,
after the bobolink's manner, as if he were caressing the earth beneath
him. However, a striking difference between his intermittent
song-flights and those of the bobolink is to be noted. The latter
usually rises in the air, soars around in a curve, and returns to the
perch from which he started, or to one near by, describing something of
an ellipse. The lark bunting generally rises obliquely to a certain
point, then descends at about the same angle to another perch opposite
the starting-point, describing what might be called the upper sides of
an isosceles triangle, the base being a line near the ground, connecting
the perch from which he rose and the one on which he alighted. I do not
mean to say that our bunting never circles, but simply tha