PAINTED BUNTING. 



601. Passerina ciris. 5^/^ inches. 



Male, vari-eolored; female, greenish gray. 



\Yithout any exception, these are the most gaudily 

 phimaged North American birds, but their colors have 

 a harshness of contrast that renders them far less 

 pleasing to the eye than many others of our birds. 

 They are often caged, but in confinement soon lose the 

 natural brilliancy of their plumage. Like the Indigo 

 Bunting, they are found in thickets and hedges; their 

 habits seem to be precisely like those of the last species. 



Song". — Similar to that of the Indigo but lacking the 

 brilliancy of that of the latter bird. 



Nest. — 'Of grasses, leaves, strips of bark and root- 

 lets, compactly compressed and woven together, situ- 

 ated at low elevations in thickets and low bushes; eggs 

 whitish, specked and blotched with reddish brown (.78 x 

 .58). 



Range. — Southeastern U. S., breeding from the Gulf 

 north to Virginia, Ohio and Kansas; winters in Cen- 

 tral America. 



