190 OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 



About the middle of August, in congregating numbers, 

 divested already of all selective attachment, vast foraging 

 parties enter New York and Pennsylvania, on their way 

 to the south. Here, along the shores of the large rivers, 

 lined with floating fields of the Wild Rice,* they find an 

 abundant means of subsistence during their short stay ; 

 and as their flesh, now fat, is little inferior to that of the 

 European Ortolan, the Reed or Rice birds, as they are 

 then called in their Sparrow-dress, form a favorite sport 

 for gunners of all descriptions, who turn out on the occa- 

 sion, and commit prodigious havock among the almost 

 silent and greedy roosting throng. The markets are then 

 filled with this delicious game, and the pursuit, both for 

 success and amusement, along the picturesque and reedy 

 shores of the Delaware, and other rivers, is second to 

 none but that of Rail-sliooting. As soon as the cool 

 nights of October commence, and as the Wild Rice crops 

 begin to fail, the Reed-birds take their departure from 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in their further pro- 

 gress through the southern States they swarm in the Rice 

 fields, and before the crop is gathered they have already 

 made their appearance in the islands of Cuba and Ja- 

 maica, where they also feed on the seeds of the Guinea 

 grass, t become so fat as to deserve the name of ^Butter- 

 birds,'' and are in high esteem for the table. 



The Rice-Troopial is 7^ inches long, and W^'vn. extent. The dress 

 of the male, on arriving, is with the upper part of the head, wings, 

 tail, sides of the neck, and whole lower parts, black ; the feathers 

 frequently skirted with brownish yellow, but more particularly so as 

 he puts on the livery of the female ; the back of the head yellowish 

 white ; scapulars, rump, and tail coverts white, and all except the 

 first tinged with ash. Feathers of the tail sharp at the end, (as 

 among the Woodpeckers.) Iris hazel. Bill bluish black ; in the 

 female, young bird, and autumnal male, pale flesh-color. 



* Zizania species. t Sorghum. 



