51 



BAY-WINGED BUNTING. 

 EMBERIZA GR AMINE A. 

 [Plate XXXI Fig. 5.] 



f Grass Finch, Am. Zool. No. 253.— Lath. Ill, 273.-.Turton, Syst. I, p. 565. 



THE manners of this bird bear great affinity to those of the 

 common Bunting of Britain. It delights in frequenting grass and 

 clover fields, perches on the tops of the fences, singing from the 

 middle of April to the beginning of July with a clear and pleasant 

 note, in which particular it far excels its European relation. It is 

 partially a bird of passage here, some leaving us, and others re- 

 maining with us during the winter. In the month of March I ob- 

 served them numerous in the lower parts of Georgia, where, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Abbot, they are only winter visitants. They fre- 

 quent the middle of fields more than hedges or thickets; run along 

 the ground like a Lark, which they also resemble in the great 

 breadth of their wings: they are timid birds; and rarely approach 

 the farm house. 



Their nest is built on the ground, in a grass or clover field, 

 and formed of old withered leaves and dry grass; and lined with 

 hair. The female lays four or five eggs of a greyish white. On 

 the first week in May I found one of their nests with four young, 

 from which circumstance I think it probable that they raise two or 

 more brood in the same season. 



This bird measures five inches and three quarters in length, 

 and ten inches and a half in extent; the upper parts are cinereous 

 brown, mottled with deep brown or black; lesser wing coverts 

 bright bay, greater black, edged with very pale brown; wings 

 dusky, edged with brown; the exterior primary edged with white; 



