THE PERCHING BIRDS. in 



" Its favorite haunts while with us," remarks Wilson, " are about 

 gardens, fields of deep clover, the borders of woods, and roadsides, 

 where it is frequently seen perched on the fences. In its manners 

 it is extremely active and neat, and a vigorous and pretty good 

 songster. It mounts to the highest tops of a large tree, and chants 

 for half an hour at a time. Its song is not one continued strain, but 

 a repetition of short notes, commencing loud and rapid, and falling 

 by almost imperceptible gradations for six or eight seconds, till they 

 seem hardly articulate, as if the little minstrel were quite exhausted ; 

 and after a pause of half a minute or less, commences again as be- 

 fore. Some of our birds sing only in spring, and then chiefly in the 

 morning, being comparatively mute during the heat of noon ; but 

 the Indigo-bird chants with as much animation under the meridian 

 sun in the month of July as in the month of May, and continues his 

 song, occasionally, to the middle or end of August." 



In the South and West are found the Varied, Laz- 

 uli, Beautiful, and Painted Buntings, all belonging to 

 the genus Passerina, of which our Indigo-bird is the 

 Northern representative. They are all more beau- 

 tiful birds than the one we have treated of, but in gen- 

 eral habits much the same, the song even having a 

 strong family resemblance, and no one much the 

 superior of the others. Occasionally a " straggler" 

 Painted Bunting has been reported as found " wild" 

 in Pennsylvania. One of these, I am positive, was an 

 escaped cage-bird. 



The Black-throated Bunting, or " Dickcissal," ends 

 the sparrow series, but because last is by no means 

 least. In 1873 I spent several months in a house in 

 Central New Jersey beside which was an open lot. 

 There was some grass and more weeds growing in 

 it. For convenience, I adopted the lazy man's plan 

 of making a short cut across this open space, and 

 before I had worn much of a path I found that the 



