158 THE CHIEF ISTJTRITIVE PLANTS OF THE TORRID ZOXE 



previously had only afforded food to frogs and water-birds, have 

 been changed into the most fruitful fields, so that South Caro- 

 lina, before her ports were blockaded, not merely supplied the 

 whole of the United States with all the rice they require, but 

 also annually exported more than a hundred thousand large 

 casks to the various markets of Europe. 



Unfortunately, the cultivation of the rice-plant is very 

 unhealthy, and the swamp -fevers, engendered by the alter- 

 nate flooding and drying of the land, annually carry away so 

 many of the slaves engaged in the labour, that the natural 

 increase of the population does not suffice to cover the loss, 

 which can only be repaired by continually importing fresh 

 negroes from the more northern slave -states — a scandalous 

 traffic, the disgrace and shame of what was once the Union. 



Besides the devastations which the atmosphere of the rice- 

 fields causes among his labourers, the planter frequently 

 suffers heavy losses in consequence of the depre- 

 dations of the rice-bunting {Dolichonyx oryzi- 

 varus), a species of ortolan, known familiarly in 

 the country by the name of Bob Lincoln. This 

 bird is about six or seven inches long ; its head 

 and the under part of its body are black, the 

 upper part is a mixture of black, white, and 

 yellow, and the legs are red. 



It migrates over the continent of America from 

 Labrador to Mexico, and over the Great Antilles, 

 Rice -bunting, appearing in the southern extremity of the States 

 about the end of March. During the three 

 weeks to which its unwelcome visit to the rice-fields is usually 

 limited, it grows so fat upon the milky grains of its favourite 

 cereal, that its flesh becomes little inferior in flavour to that of 

 the European ortolan. As long as the female is sitting, the 

 song of the male continues with little interruption : it is sin- 

 gular and pleasant, consisting of a jingling medley of short, 

 variable notes, confused, rapid, and continuous. 



Besides Carolina — Brazil, Java, Bengal, and, more recently, 

 Arracan and Pegu, chiefly supply the European market with 

 rice. As long as the two last-named provinces groaned under 

 the yoke of his gold-footed majesty of Birmah, they were 

 totally unknown to the commerce of the world ; but scarce 



