358 PAINTED BUNTING. 



PAINTED BUNTING. (Emberiza ciris.) 

 PLATE XXIV.— Fig. 1.— Male ; Fig. 2.— Female. 



Linn. Syst. 313.— Painted Finch, Catesb. i. 4i.—Edw. 130, 173.— Arct. Zool. 

 p. 362, No. 226. — Le Verdier de la Louisiane, dit vulgairement le Pape, Briss. 

 iii. 200. App. li.—Buff. iv. 76. PI. enl. 159.— Lath. ii. 206.— Linaria ciris, 

 The Painted Finch, or Nonpareil, Bartram, p. 291. — Peak's Museum, No. 

 6062, and 6063. 



SPIZA CIRIS— Bonaparte.* 



Fringilla (sub-genus Spiza) ciris, Bonap. Synop. p. 107. — La pesserine nonpareil 

 ou le papa, Passerina ciris, Vieill. Gall, des Ois. pi. 66.— The Painted Finch, 

 Aud. pi. 53, male and female ; Orn. Biog. i. 279. 



This is one of the most numerous of the little summer birds 

 of Lower Louisiana, where it is universally known among the 

 French inhabitants, and called by them Le Pape, and by the 



* From the general request of this species as a pet, it is requisite that 

 considerable numbers should be taken, and the method used is thus 

 described by Audubon. I may remark, in the taking of various birds 

 alive, " call birds," or tame ones, trained for the purpose of decoy, are 

 commonly used in all countries, and in some instances a stuffed speci- 

 men, or even a representation made of Paris plaster, is used with suc- 

 cess. 



" A male bird, in full plumage, is shot, and stuffed in a defensive atti- 

 tude, and perched among some grass seed, rice, or other food, on the 

 same platform as the trap-cage. This is taken to the fields, or near the 

 orangeries, and placed in so open a situation, that it would be difficult 

 for a living bird of any species to fly over it without observing it. The 

 trap is set. A male painted finch passes, perceives it, and dives towards 

 the stuffed bird, brings down the trap, and is made prisoner. In this 

 manner, thousands of these birds are caught every spring ; and so per- 

 tinacious are they in their attacks, that, even when the trap has closed 

 upon them, they continue pecking at the feathers of the supposed 

 rival." 



They feed immediately, and some have been kept in confinement for 

 ten years. They cost about sixpence in New Orleans ; but, in London, 

 three guineas are sometimes asked. 



The various generic nomenclature to which this bird has been sub- 

 jected, shows that ornithologists are at variance in opinion. It forms 

 part of the first section of Bonaparte's subgenus Spiza, to which should 

 also be referred the Fringilla Cyanea of this volume, p. 100. — Ed. 



