THE RICE-BUNTING, OR REED-BIRD. Ho 



In a few moments they fly to the tree again, or 

 upon a rail fence, when the song is resumed 

 with the same sweet and surprising effect. 



They remain but a week or two, and then 

 pass to the northward and eastward to prepare 

 their nests. When the hen is sitting, the notes 

 of the male are emitted in the air near the nest, 

 and have been pronounced to be in reality more 

 pleasing than those of the European sky -lark. 

 They have no song in the fall, merely uttering 

 their usual chink, with which almost every one 

 living in the vicinity of the city is familiar. 



We killed numbers of these birds in Septem- 

 ber last, in the corn-fields of Montgomery, and 

 found many of them in very good order. The 

 same season, partridges being- very scarce, we 

 shot many of the alauda magna, or common 

 meadow-lark, which were unusually abundant, 

 and in better order than we remember to have 

 ever found them before. The young birds were, 

 in fact, hardly inferior to the partridge, and we 

 continued to supply our table with them until 

 the severe weather set in, when the flocks dis- 

 appeared. The shore or winter-lark was also 

 more common than usual in this section of the 

 country. They fly in flocks of from twenty to 

 a hundred, and have a shrill, pitiful note, some- 



