ILLUSTRATIONS. 87 



clay- colored one tUe female ; the last inentiooed appearing only ia autumn, when 

 the oryza zizania are about ripening j yet, in my opinion, there are some strong 

 circumstances which seem to operate against such a conjecture, though generally 

 believed." 



About the middle of May, the black pied rice bird, called the male, appears 

 ia Pennsylvania, about which time the great yellow ephemera, called May fly, 

 and a species of locusts, appear ia great numbers, the favorite food of these 

 birds. Travels in South CarolirM, v^l. 1. 



Dr. Barton states, that the rice bird makes its appsaronc-j near Philadelphia, 

 about the 20th of May, and that the females exclusively make their appear- 

 ance about the 20th of August. " On the authority of Catesby," says he, " it 

 has been believed by the most respectable naturalists, (Pennant and others,) that 

 the males and females migrate separately at different seasons. Thus it is imagin- 

 ed, that the males make their appearance in the vicinity of Philadelphia in the 

 spring, and the females in the autumn, or close of summer. Some facts which 

 have come under my knowledge, induce me to suspect, that this is a vulgar 

 error ; one of the many mistakes with which natural history is crowded and de- 

 formed, but at present I can only throw out the suspicion." Fragratnis 6f 

 Natural History. 



Although these supposed separate jscxual migrations may be considered anoma- 

 lous, yet they are not without precedent. The male cuckoo arrives in England 

 before the female. The male of the motaciliy luscinia, or nightingale, arrives 

 there about a week after the female. The male of the sylva sylvicola, or woo*! 

 wren, precedes the female in its vernal migrations to that country, a week or 

 ten days. And what is still more extraordinary is, that '.ve have the authority 

 of Linnaeus for saying, that the female chaffinches of Sweden, (friogifla cs-lebs,^. 

 migrate only, and this assertion is confirmed from seeing only females of that 

 species, in certain parts of England, at that time. And to show an instance of 

 :i peculiar exception from a general rule, we have only to advert to the arrival 

 of some Virds into Great Britain against a strong wind.' 



We all know that the notion of the arrival of the different sexes of this bird, 

 at different times, in this part of the country is unfounded. They arrive on 

 Long Island sometime in May, and have their young in June, when the distinc- 

 tion of sexes in the young, as well as old, ia obvious, the young rr.r.les resembling 

 the old ones ; and they are, at that season, broujht alive to our market?, by the 

 bird catchers, for sale, and sold to be kept in ca^e*. They retire from us th* 

 latter end of the summer, at the same time ; but the positive assertion of Cates- 

 by, and others, that females are only seen in Carolina in September, and that 

 he had verified this opinion by dissection, was calculated to produce acquiescence, 

 Tri1fl Wilson cleured OB tfcts sr,H^<"\ H* siys. that fhey arrive in Pcrni=y]v?n?e 



