348 BUNTING. 



This species generally inhabits the warmer parts of Canada, and 

 everywhere between that and Mexico, Brazil, Guiana;* at Carolina 

 none are seen near inhabited parts, nor very near the sea. They build 

 on the orange, and other trees, but are there only in summer ; fre- 

 quently kept in cages in England, and may be fed on millet, succory, 

 and other seeds. The Dutch contrive means to breed these in Hol- 

 land, like Canary, and other birds, but we believe the attempt has 

 rarely succeeded in England. I was assured, by the late Mr. Tun- 

 stall, that it has happened more than once ; and that two pairs made 

 nests, and laid eggs in the orange-trees, in a menagery of a relation 

 of his, at Holderness, in Yorkshire ; but in this instance, the young- 

 were not hatched. The above gentleman has kept many, but seems 

 to think, that they gain their full plumage sooner than the third year; 

 and observed them frequently to suspend themselves, hanging by one 

 leg from the perch while asleep ; in this, imitating the Sapphire- 

 crowned Parrakeet, the Coly, and some others. Mr. Abbot informed 

 me, that it frequents the oak woods in Georgia, and builds the be- 

 ginning of May, in bushes : the nest formed of dried stalks of plants, 

 cotton, and dried leaves, lined with hay; the egg is bluish white, 

 with several ferruginous red spots, more numerous in a zone at the 

 larger end ; and that theyoung male, the second spring and summer, 

 continues the same colour as the female, but sings like the adult. 



According to Mr. Bartram, the song of this bird is remarkably 

 low, soft, and warbling, exceedingly tender, and soothing; is not 

 seen north of Cape Fear, in North Carolina ; and seldom ten miles 

 from the sea coasts, or at most twenty or thirty miles ; chiefly near 

 the banks of great rivers, in the fragrant groves of the orange, &c. 



* Bancroft talks of a bird called Kishee Kishee, at Guiana ; said to exceed all the fea- 

 thered tribe, having a confused assemblage of all the most lively and beautiful colours in 

 nature : among these, yellow, scarlet, green, and blackish purple, or indigo, have the 

 greatest share ; besides which there are white, black, and blue, and that they are brought 

 by the Accawaw Indians, from the inland parts of the country ; and the common price is a 

 pistole per pair : but he adds, that man}' ineffectual attempts have been made to convey 

 them to Holland. If not the bird in question, I know not what else it can be. 



