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BACHMAN'S FINCH. 



Fringilla Bachmanii. 



PLATE CLXV. Male. 



In honouring so humble an object as this Finch with the name of 

 Bachman, my aim is to testify the high regard in which I hold that 

 learned and most estimable individual, to whose friendship I owe more 

 than I can express on this occasion. 



" In the month of April ISSS," says my worthy friend, the gentle- 

 man just named, " I discovered near Parker's Ferry, on the Edisto 

 River, in this State, a Fringilla which I had not seen before, and which, 

 on investigation, I found had never been described. On seai'ching for the 

 same bird in the neighbourhood of Charleston, I discovered it breeding 

 in small numbers on the Pine Barrens, about six miles north of this city, 

 where I obtained many specimens of it. 



" This bird appears to be rarer in Carolina than it really is. It is 

 in fact oftener heard than seen. When I first heard its notes, they so 

 nearly resembled those of the Towee Bunting, that I took it to be that 

 bird : a somewhat greater softness, and a slight variation in the notes, 

 alone induced me to suspect that it was another, and caused me to go in 

 pursuit of it. Since then I have heard as many as tive or six in the 

 course of a morning's ride, but found it almost impossible to get even a 

 sight of the bird. This was owing, not to its being particularly wild, 

 but to the habits it possesses of darting from the tall pine-trees, where it 

 usually sits to warble out its melodious notes, and concealing itself in the 

 tall brome-grass which is almost invariably found in those places which it 

 frequents. As soon as alighted, it keeps running off in the grass, hke a 

 mouse, and it is extremely difficult to put them up, or see them after- 

 wards. 



" It breeds in Carolina, to all appearance on the ground, where it is 

 usually found when not singing. I never saw its nest ; but in the month 

 of June last (1833), I observed two pair of these birds, each having four 

 young ones, that were pretty well fledged, and following their parents 

 along the low scrubb oaks of the pine lands. 



" This is decidedly the finest songster of the Sparrow Family with 



