RICE BIRD. 285 



ing in successive jerks, which are as amusing as the jingling of their vo- 

 cal essays. The variety of their colours is at this juncture very remark- 

 able. It is equally so, when, on rising from among the grass and flying 

 away from the observer, they display the pure black and white of their 

 wings and body. 



The nest of the Rice Bunting is placed on the ground, without much 

 apparent care as to choice of situation, but always amongst the grass, or in 

 a field of wheat or barley. It is composed of coarse dried grasses and 

 leaves externally, and is lined with finer meadow grass. It appears large 

 for the size of the bird. The female lays from four to six eggs, of a 

 white colour, strongly tinged with dull blue, and irregularly spotted with 

 blackish. They raise only one brood in a season. 



No sooner have the young left the nest, than they and their parents 

 associate with other families, so that by the end of July large flocks be- 

 gin to appear. They seem to come from every portion of the Eastern 

 States, and already resort to the borders of the rivers and estuaries to 

 roost. Their songs have ceased, the males have lost their gay livery, and ' 

 have assumed the yellow hue of the females and young, although the 

 latter are more firm in their tints than the old males, and the whole be- 

 gin to return southward, slowly and with a single clink, sufficient how- 

 ever to give intimation of their passage, as they fly high in long files dur- 

 ing the whole day. 



Now begin their devastations. They plunder every field, but are 

 shot in immense numbers. As they pass along the sea shores, and fol- 

 low the mviddy edges of the rivers, covered at that season with full 

 grown reeds, whose tops are bent down with the weight of the ripe seeds, 

 they alight amongst them in countless multitudes, and afford abundant 

 practice to every gunner. 



It is particularly towards sunset, and when the weather is fine, that 

 the sport of shooting Reed Birds is most profitable. They have then 

 fully satiated their appetite, and have collected closely for the purpose of 

 roosting. At the discharge of a gun, a flock sufficient to cover several 

 acres rises en masse, and performing various evolutions, densely packed, 

 and resembling a sultry cloud, passes over and near the sportsman, when he 

 lets fly, and finds occupation for some time in picking up the dozens which 

 he has brought down at a single shot. One would think that every gun 

 in the country has been put in requisition. Millions of these birds are de- 

 stroyed, and yet millions remain, for after all the havock that has been 



