PAINTED BUNTING. 89 



sexes, during the first season, are of a fine green olive above, and dull 

 yellow below. The females undergo little or no change, but that of 

 becoming of a more brownish cast. The males, on the contrary, are 

 long and slow in arriving at their full variety of colors. In the second 

 season the blue on the head begins to make its appearance, intermixed 

 with the olive green. The next year the yellow shows itself on the back 

 and rump ; and also the red, in detached spots, on the throat and lower 

 parts. All these colors are completed in the fourth season, except, 

 sometimes, that the green still continues on the tail. On the fourth 

 and fifth season the bird has attained his complete colors, and appears 

 then as represented in the plate (fig. 1). No dependence, however, can 

 be placed on the regularity of this change in birds confined in a cage, 

 as the want of proper food, sunshine, and variety of climate, all con- 

 spire against the regular operations of nature. 



The Nonpareil is five inches and three quarters long, and eight inches 

 and three quarters in extent ; head, neck above, and sides of the same, 

 a rich purplish blue ; eyelid, chin, and whole lower parts, vermilion ; 

 back and scapulars glossy yellow, stained with rich green, and in old 

 birds with red ; lesser wing coverts purple ; larger green ; wings dusky 

 red, sometimes edged with green ; lower part of the back, rump and 

 tail coverts deep glossy red, inclining to carmine ; tail slightly forked, 

 purplish brown (generally green) ; legs and feet leaden gray ; bill black 

 above, pale blue below ; iris of the eye hazel. 



The female (fig. 2) is five and a half inches long, and eight inches in 

 extent ; upper parts green olive, brightest on the rump ; lower parts a 

 dusky Naples yellow, brightest on the belly, and tinged considerably on 

 the breast with dull green, or olive ; cheeks or ear-feathers marked with 

 lighter touches ; bill wholly a pale lead color, lightest below ; legs and 

 feet the same. 



The food of these birds consists of rice, insects, and various kinds of 

 seeds that grow luxuriantly in their native haunts. I also observed them 

 eating the seeds or internal grains of ripe figs. They frequent gardens, 

 building within a few paces of the house ; are particularly attached to 

 orangeries ; and chant occasionally during the whole summer. Early 

 in October they retire to more southern climates, being extremely 

 susceptible of cold. 



