RICE BUNTING. 129 
third or fourth day, he appeared extremely solicitous for the liberation 
of his charge, using every expression of distressful anxiety, and every 
call and invitation that nature had put in his power, for him to come 
out. This was too much for the feelings of my venerable friend ; he 
procured a ladder, and, mounting to the spot where the bird was sus- 
pended, opened the cage, took out the prisoner, and restored him to 
liberty and to his parent, who, with notes of great exultation, accom- 
panied his flight to the-woods. The happiness of my good friend was 
scarcely less complete, and showed itself in his benevolent countenance ; 
and I could not refrain saying to myself, —If such sweet sensations 
can be derived from a single circumstance of this kind, how exquisite 
—how unspeakably rapturous — must the delight of those individuals 
have been, who have rescued their fellow-beings from death, chains, 
and imprisonment, and restored them to the arms of their friends and 
relations! Surely, in such godlike actions, virtue is its own most abun- 
dant reward. es : 
——>—__ 
RICE BUNTING. — EMBERIZA ORYZIVORA. — Fics. 47, 48. 
Emberiza oryzivora, Linn. Syst. p. 311, 16.—Le Ortolan da la Caroline, Briss. 
Orn. iii. p. 282, 8, pl. 15, fig. 3. Pl. enl. 388. fig. 1.—L’Agripenne ou Jortolan 
de Riz, Buf’ Ois. iv. p. 337, — Rice Bird Catesb. Car. i. pl. 14.— Edw. pl. 2 
— Latham, ii. p. 188, No. 25.— Peale’s Museum, No. 6026. 
t DOLYCHONYX ORYZIV ORUS.—Swainson. 
Icterus agripennis, Bonap. Synop. p. 53.—Dolychonyx oryzivorus, Sw. Synop. 
© Birds of Mexizo, 485° North. Bool. i p, 278.— Aud. pl. 54. Orn. Boe 4. 
p- 2 ‘ . s 
Tuts is the Boblink of the Kastern and Northern States, andthe Rice 
and Reed Bird of Pennsylvania and the Southern States. Thoughsmall 
in size, he is not so in consequence; his coming is hailed by the 
sportsman with pleasure ; while the careful planter looks upon him as 
a devouring scourge, and worse than a plague of locusts. Three good 
qualities, however, entitle him to our notice, particularly as these three 
are rarely found in the same individual, — his plumage is beautiful, his 
song highly musical, and his flesh excellent. I might also add, that 
the immense range of his migrations, and the havock he commits, are 
not the least interesting parts of his history.* 
at 
* To Wilson’s interesting account of the habits of this curious bird, Mr. Audubon 
adds the following particulars: —In Louisiana. they pass under the name of 
Meadow Birds, and they arrive there in small flocks of males and females about 
the middle of March or beginning of April. Their song in spring is extremely in 
teresting, and, emitted with a volubility bordering on the bur esque, is heard from 
a whole party at the same time, and it becomes amusing to hear thirty or forty of 
them beginning one after another, as if ordered to follow in quick succession, after 
the first notes are given by a leader, and producing such a medley as it is impos- 
sible to describe, although it is extremely pleasant tohear. While you are listening, 
the whole flock simultaneously ceases, which appears equally extraordinary. This 
curious exhibition takes place sib time the flock has alighted on a tree. 
Another curious fact mentioned by this gentleman is, that during their spring 
