270 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



and acquaint their community therewith, and, joining 

 in numerous flights, make annual excursions to solace 

 in this their exotic food. Since the discovery of 

 America there have been introduced from Europe 

 several sorts of grain, which were never before known 

 in that part of the world, arid which, not before some 

 length of time, were found out and coveted by these 

 migratory birds. No wonder this grain should not 

 be immediately known to birds of distant regions ; for 

 above half a century passed from the time of culti- 

 vating wheat, rice, and barley in Virginia and Caro- 

 lina, before those grains were found out and frequented 

 by those foreign birds, of which one has but lately 

 made its appearance in Virginia, as my ingenious 

 friend, Dr. Mitchel, informs me that he, being in his 

 garden, a bird flew over his head, which appeared 

 with uncommon lustre, and surprised him the more, 

 not having seen the like kind before. Mentioning 

 this to some of his neighbours, he was told by them, 

 what afterwards was confirmed to him by his own 

 observation, that these exotic birds had but within 

 these few years appeared in Virginia, and had never 

 been observed there before. They arrive annually, 

 at the time that \vheat (the fields of which they most 

 frequent) is at a certain degree of maturity, and have 

 constantly, every year, from their first appearance, 

 arrived about the same time in numerous flights. 

 They have attained the name of wheat-birds." Catesby 

 further mentions that, in September 1725, he was 

 lying upon the deck of a sloop in a bay at Andros 

 island, where he and the company with him distinctly 

 heard, for three successive nights, the flight of these 

 birds, whose note is plainly distinguishable from 

 others, passing over head northerly, which is their 

 direct way from Cuba to Carolina. This led him to 

 conclude that, after partaking of the earlier crop of 



