B/RDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
157 
Plate XXVIL 
PASSEEINA CIRIS, (Linn.) Gray. 
Nonpareil ; Painted Bunting 
For variety and brilliancy of coloring none of our North American 
finches can compare with the one which constitutes the subject of this 
sketch. The euphonious French title by which it is designated has been 
most aptly chosen. For, verily, it is the nonpareil of avian beauty. 
Nature seems to have sjiared no pains in making this her handiwork the 
perfection of artistic design and ornamentation. Such an array of colors, 
and the beautiful harmony which characterizes their blending, bespeak no 
mean, unskilful painter, but a master-hand, before whose paltriest, weakest 
efforts the noblest of man’s productions sinks into insignificance. 
Contrasted with its less showy associates that frequent the same de- 
lightful, sunny landscapes to breed, this lovely species seems altogether out 
of place. It is a fitter denizen for realms beyond the tropic, where the 
broad-leaved banana hangs its clustering, golden flagons temptingly to the 
gaze, and where many-hued, various life rejoices in wanton jirodigality. 
Though reared amid the rich savannas and fertile slopes of South 
Carolina, and the belt of country thence westward to the Pecos River, of 
Texas, it is only a temporary sojourner. With the first breath that comes 
from the north, in the fall, it takes its departure, and wings its flight to 
warmer latitudes. The land of the Aztec, and the warm isles of the sea 
to the southward, are its destination. A few individuals, fond of travel 
and change of scenery, do not, however, pause from their journey until 
they have reached the Isthmus which weds the two great halves of the 
American continent. 
