66 BAY-WINGED BUNTING. 



Maryland. During winter it is found in astonishing numbers about all the 

 old fields in South Carolina, Georgia, the Floridas, and Alabama. The eggs 

 measure seven-eighths of an inch in length, seven-twelfths in breadth, with 

 a bluish-white ground, almost entirely covered with undefined markings of 

 pale reddish-brown, more closely set towards the larger end; but they vary 

 much, some being almost white. I have found many nests of this species on 

 Chelsea Beach, in July and August. 



The following account of its manners while incubating is from Dr. T. M. 

 Brewer: — "There are few of our Sparrows that employ a greater variety of 

 artifice to decoy their chief enemy, man, from the young or eggs. The situ- 

 ation of the nest, which is usually placed on the ground in dry sandy fields, 

 without the least pains at concealment, renders stratagem peculiarly necessa- 

 ry to this bird. In a morning of May, 1836, as I was crossing a dry sandy 

 field, I almost trod upon a female of this species, as she was sitting on her 

 nest. She was exactly the colour of the surrounding soil, and was therefore 

 unperceived by me, and another step would have inevitably brought me upon 

 her, when she tumbled forward and imitated lameness so perfectly, that it 

 was with the utmost difficulty I could prevent myself from being deceived 

 and following her. The stratagem, however, was of no avail: I stopped, 

 examined the eggs, which were four in number, and left them. The follow- 

 ing morning I again visited the spot, but this time the stratagem was differ- 

 ent. She left her nest, flew to a spot several rods distant, and manifested 

 the greatest anxiety about the place on which she alighted, so that a stranger, 

 not seeing her flight, would have supposed her nest to be at quite a distance 

 from its real location. Finding this trick also unavailing, and seeing me 

 stoop and examine her treasures, she speedily approached, and began making 

 the most piteous lamentations, which she continued until I was at a consider- 

 able distance from her nest. The next morning I made her another visit, 

 and again she varied her artifice, by leaving her nest, while I was at a greater 

 distance than on either of my other visits, and flying into concealment as 

 speedily as possible, evidently in hopes her flight would not be noticed. To 

 how great a number and variety she would have carried her stratagems I am 

 unable to say, for on visiting the spot on the fourth day, I was sorry to find 

 the nest empty and deserted. Was this bird guided by instinct or by reason? 

 The ess measures seven-eighths of an inch in length, and eleven-sixteenths 

 in breadth, and is of a bluish-white, covered nearly equally with blotches of 

 a reddish-brown colour. They are not always exactly uniform in colour and 

 markings, but sufficiently so to be readily recognised. They resemble not a 

 little the eggs of Fringilla maritima and F. palustris, but are distinguish- 

 able from both. They are also sometimes marked with hair-lines of a dark 

 brown colour, irregularly scattered over the whole egg." 



