ig$ RICE BUNTING. 



their fellow-beings from death, chains, and imprisonment, 

 and restored them to the arms of their friends and rela- 

 tions ! Surely, in such godlike actions, virtue is its own most 

 abundant reward. 



RICE BUNTING. (Emberiza oryzivora.) 



PLATE XII.— Figs. 1 and 2. 



Emberiza oryzivora, Linn. Syst. p. 311, 16. — Le Ortolan de la Caroline, Briss. 

 Orn. iii. p. 282, 8, pi. 15, fig. 3. PL enl. 388. fig. 1. — L'Agripenne ou l'ortolan 

 de Riz, Buff. Ois. iv. p. 337.— Rice Bird, Catesb. Car. i. pi. 14.— Edw. pi. 2. 

 — Latham, ii. p. 188. No. 25. — PeaWs Museum, No. 6026. 



DOLYCHONYX ORYZIVORUS.—Swavssson. 



Icterus agripennis, Bonap. Synop. p. 53. — Dolychonyx oryzivorus, Sw. Synop. 

 Birds of Mexico, 435. — North. Zool. ii. p. 278. — Aud. pi. 54, Orn. Biog. i. 

 p. 2S3. 



This is the boblink of the eastern and northern States, and 

 the rice and reed bird of Pennsylvania and the southern 

 States. Though small 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 havoc he commits, are not the least interesting parts of 

 his history.* 



* To Wilson's interesting account of the habits of this curious hird, 

 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 interesting, and, emitted with a volu- 

 bility bordering on the burlesque, 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 impossible to describe, although it is extremely pleasant to hear. 



