SPECIES 8. EMBER1ZA GRAM1NE& 



BAY-WINGED BUNTING. 



-i-.-v : .; 



[Plate XXXL Fig. 5.] 



Grass Finch, Arct. Zool. No. 253.LATH. in, 273. TURTON, 

 Syst. l,p. 565. 



THE manners of this bird bear great affinity to those of the 

 common Bunting of Britain. It delights in frequenting grass 

 and clover fields, perches on the tops of the fences, singing 

 from the middle of April to the beginning of July, with a clear 

 and pleasant note, in which particular it far excels its Euro- 

 pean relation. It is partially a bird of passage here, some leav- 

 ing us and others remaining with us during the winter. In the 

 month of March I observed them numerous in the lower parts 

 of Georgia, where, according to Mr. Abbot, they are only win- 

 ter visitants. They frequent the middle of fields more than 

 hedges or thickets; run along the ground like a Lark, which 

 they also resemble in the great breadth of their wings: they 

 are timid birds; and rarely approach the farm house. 



Their nest is built on the ground, in a grass or clover field, 

 and formed of old withered leaves and dry grass; and lined with 

 hair. The female lays four or five eggs of a grayish white. On 

 the first week in May I found one of their nests with four 

 young, from which circumstance I think it probable that they 

 raise two or more broods in the same season. 



This bird measures five inches and three quarters in length, 

 and ten inches and a half in extent; the upper parts are cinereous 

 brown, mottled with deep brown or black; lesser wing coverts 

 bright bay, greater black, edged with very pale brown; wings 

 dusky, edged with brown; the exterior primary edged with white; 

 tail sub-cuneiform, the outer feather white on the exterior edge, 



