SUMMER RED BIRD. 233 



by striking the latter smartly. The female lays four or five eggs of a 

 light blue colour. The male and female sit upon them alternately for 

 twelve days, and are as anxious about their safety as most species. The 

 young are seen about the beginning of June, and follow their parents 

 until the time of the migration of the latter, which takes place a fort- 

 night earlier than that of the young birds. They raise only one brood 

 in a season. 



The alterations of plumage which appear in the young birds between 

 the period at which they leave the nest, and the ensuing spring, are as 

 great as those of the Orchard Oriole. They are at first nearly of the 

 colour of the female. The males become a little mottled with dull red- 

 dish-orange, towards the time of their departure for the south, the 

 females only deepening their tints. Ihe following spring, the male ap- 

 pears either spotted all over the body Avith bright red and yellowish- 

 green, or only partially so, having sometimes one wing of a greenish hue, 

 whilst the other is tinged all over with a dull vermilion tint. All these 

 spots and shades of colour gradually disappear, giving place to vermi- 

 lion, which, however, is yet dull ; nor is it until the third spring that the 

 full brilliancy of the plumage is attained. 



I have several times attempted to raise the young from the nest, but 

 in vain. Insects, fruits, and eggs, mixed with boiled meat of various 

 kinds, always failed, and the birds generally died in a very few days, 

 uttering a dull note, as if elicited by great suffering. The same note is 

 emitted by the young in their state of freedom, when, perched on a 

 branch, they await the appearance of their parents with their proper 

 food. 



I liave represented an adult mkle, his mate, and a young bird in its 

 singularly patched state, to enable you to judge how different a family 

 of these birds must appear to the eye of a person unacquainted with the 

 peculiarity of these differences and changes of plumage. 



The Vine on which you see them is usually called the Muscadine. It 

 grows everywhere in Louisiana, and the State of Mississippi, and that 

 most luxuriantly. In those States you may see vines of this species fif- 

 teen inches in diameter near the roots, either entwined round the trunk 

 of a large tree, and by this means reaching the top branches and extend- 

 ing over them and those of another tree, or, as if by magic, swinging in 

 the air, from roots attached at once to some of the uppermost branches. 

 In favourable seasons, they are laden with grapes, which hang in small 



