450 ■ FINCHES. 



While here, the males are extremely gay and fiill of song, frequenting meadows, newly 

 ploughed fields, sides of creeks, rivers, and watery places, feeding on mayflies and cater- 

 pillars, of which they destroy great quantities. In their passage, how^ever, through 

 Virginia at this season, they do great damage to the early wheat and barley while in its ' 

 milky state. About the 20th of May, they disappear on their way to the north. Nearly 

 at the same time they arrive in the State of New York, spread over the whole New 

 England States, as far as the river St. Lawrence, from Lake Ontario to the sea, in all of 

 which places, north of Pennsylvania, they remain during the summer, building and rearing 

 their young." 



As soon as the young are able to fly, the Eice Troopials collect in vast flocks, and 

 settling down upon the reeds and wild oats, feed so largely that they become very fat, and 

 are thought to be equal in flavour to the celebrated ortolan of Europe. Multitudes of 

 these birds are killed for sale, and are exposed in the dealer's shop tied together in long 

 strings. 



The song of this bird is very peculiar and varies greatly with the occasion. As the 

 flocks of Eice Birds pass southwards after the breeding season, their cry is nothing 

 but a kind of clinking note frequently repeated ; but the love song addressed to the actual 

 or intended mate is of a very different character, excellent, volulDle, and fervent. Filled 

 with happiness, and uttering the joy of his heart in blithe and meriy notes, the Eice 

 Bird flings himself into the air, hovers for a while over the object of his love, pours 

 forth a volley of wild and rapid notes whose exulting strains can be interpreted even by 

 a human ear, and, alternately rising and sinking on the wing, thus pays his court with the 

 wildest medley of melodious notes that ever issued from a feathered throat. The 

 rapidity with which the sounds succeed each other is so great that the ear can hardly 

 distinguish them, the high and low notes being uttered apparently at random, making 

 such a singular jumble of musical sounds that they seem to be produced by at least six or 

 seven throats instead of one. Although so unconnected with each other, these short and 

 variable notes harmonise well when several birds are singing simultaneously. The song 

 lasts for a considerable time, one of these birds when kept in a cage having been known 

 to sing continuously from April to the end of June. 



Sometimes a party of thirty or forty will begin to sing altogether, as if following the 

 direction of some leader, each taking up the strain in proper succession, and the whole 

 flock ceasing suddenly as if by some preconcerted signal. These curious concerts are 

 performed as often as the little flock perches upon a tree. 



The male Eice Troopial is a handsome little bird, and is thus coloured : The upper 

 part of the head, the sides of the neck, the wings, tail, and lower surface of the body, are 

 deep black, the feathers being sometimes edged with yellow if the bird is not an old one. 

 The back is also black, but diversified with streaks of brownish yellow. The scapularies 

 and tail-coverts are white, and the lower part of the back is also white, with a bluish 

 tinge. The female is streaked with brownish yellow upon the back, and the whole of the 

 lower parts are dull yellow. Tliis plumage is also assumed by the male as soon as the 

 breeding season is over, and is not laid aside for his brilliant vestments until the next 

 season of love. Sometimes the change is rather tedious, and then the poor bird seems to 

 be greatly sensible of the disadvantages under which he is labouring, sitting idly in 

 a disconsolate kind of fashion, until his new clothes arrive and his vivacity with them. 

 The total length of the Eice Troopial is between seven and eight inches. 



We now arrive at the large and important families of the Finches, in which group is 

 contained very many of the more familiar British birds, which are popularly known by the 

 title of Finch, together with some distinctive prefix, as well as a large number of less 

 known but not less interesting natives of foreign lands. In all these birds the bill is 

 conical, short and stout, sharp at the extremity and without any notch in the upper 

 mandible. 



The first group of the Finches is composed of a number of species, which, although for 

 the most part not conspicuous either for size, beauty of form, or brilliancy of coloiir, are yet 

 among the most remarkable of the feathered tribe. The nests of the Baltimore and orchard 



