EASTERN PAINTED BUNTING 141 



In most of its breeding range the bird raises two broods each season, 

 but in the Charleston area three are raised, and at times four (Wayne, 

 1910). Wayne has found young birds "as late as September 16th." 

 Eggs are laid by mid-May, and, indicative of the three-brood habit, 

 Wayne has secured fresh eggs on May 18, June 16, and July 15. 

 Audubon states that two broods are raised in Louisiana. Wilson, 

 speaking of that State, says that two are "probable." Oberholser 

 (1938) says "two or more." The Rev. John Bachman, quoted by 

 Audubon and living in Charleston near where Wayne worked, notes 

 that "I have had them to raise three broods of young in the year in 

 confinement." At the northern limit of its Atlantic Coast range 

 (Wilmington-Beaufort, N.C.) the nonpareil apparently reduces its 

 nesting to no more than two, and often just one, brood. 



The situation in Florida is curious. Although the bird winters 

 there with regularity, and although it occurs there in large numbers 

 in spring, it is far from a common breeder there. South of a line 

 across the peninsula from Vero Beach to the Gulf of Mexico, there is 

 apparently but one nesting record (Howell, 1932). All nesting 

 records for Florida are coastal, and it is only in the northern half of 

 the peninsula that it breeds at all regularly. It does not breed at all 

 in the "panhandle". 



In Georgia, Burleigh (1958) states that it is "A common summer 

 resident on the coast and along the Savannah River as far north as 

 Augusta. Largely of accidental occurrence in the interior of the 

 State, * * * away from the coast it is rarely observed." Eugene 

 E. Murphey (1937) states that it used to nest abundantly at and 

 about Augusta, Ga., but less so in recent years. Some of the dim- 

 inution he lays to the charge of "those * * * who have charge of 

 highway construction and maintenance, who relentlessly wage a war 

 of extirpation against all roadside vegetation," thus eliminating 

 favored nesting sites. Augusta is the only inland locality in Georgia 

 where the species breeds, or even occurs, regularly. It is on the 

 Savannah River at the "fall line." 



A somewhat similar situation prevails along the coastal rivers of 

 South Carolina where the nonpareil penetrates farther inland along 

 the course of such streams than they do in areas where there are no 

 rivers. 



Burleigh (1944) states that he knew of only two localities in 

 Mississippi where it nested, a regular one near Pass Christian and 

 another near Biloxi, which was for one season only. 



The male has little if anything to do with the domestic arrangements, 

 as might be inferred from the brilliant plumage, calculated to draw 

 attention. He stays in the general vicinity of the nest and sings 



