RICE BUNTING. 
67 
nish, not only them, but millions of Rail, with a delicious subsistence for 
several weeks. I do not doubt, however, that the introduction of rice, 
but more particularly the progress of agriculture in this part of America, 
has greatly increased their numbers, by multiplying their sources of 
subsistence fifty fold within the same extent of country. 
In the month of April, or very early in May, the Rice Bunting, male 
and female, in the dresses in which they are figured on the plate, arrive 
within the southern boundaries of the United States; and are seen 
around the town of Savannah, in Georgia, about the fourth of May, 
sometimes in separate parties of males and females ; but more generally 
promiscuously. They remain there but a short time ; and about the 
twelfth of May make their appearance in the lower parts of Pennsyl- 
vania, as they did at Savannah. While here the males are extremely 
gay and full of song ; frequenting meadows, newly ploughed fields, sides 
of creeks, rivers, and watery places, feeding on May-flies and cater- 
pillars, of which they destroy great quantities. In their passage, how- 
ever, through Virginia at this season, they do great damage to the early 
wheat and barley, while in its milky state. About the twentieth of May 
they disappear on their way to the north. Nearly at the same time 
they arrive in the state of New York, spread over the whole New 
England States as far as the river St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario to 
the sea ; in all of which places north of Pennsylvania they remain during 
the summer, building, and rearing their young. The nest is fixed on 
the ground, generally in a field of grass ; the outside is composed of 
dry leaves and coarse grass, the inside is lined with fine stalks of the 
same, laid in considerable quantity. The female lays five eggs, of a 
bluish white, marked with numerous irregular spots of blackish brown. 
The song of the male, while the female is sitting, is singular, and very 
agreeable. Mounting and hovering on wing, at a small height above 
the field, he chants out such a jingling medley of short variable notes, 
uttered with such seeming confusion and rapidity, and continued for a 
considerable time, that it appears as if half a dozen birds of different 
kinds were all singing together. Some idea may be formed of this song 
by striking the high keys of a piano-forte at random, singly, and quickly, 
making as many sudden contrasts of high and low notes as possible. 
Many of the tones are, in themselves, charming ; but they succeed each 
other so rapidly that the ear can hardly separate them. Nevertheless 
the general effect is good ; and when ten or twelve are all singing on 
the same tree, the concert is singularly pleasing. I kept one of these 
birds for a long time, to observe its change of color. During the whole 
of April, May, and June, it sang almost continually. In the month of 
June the color of the male begins to change, gradually assimilating to 
that of the female, and before the beginning of August it is difficult to 
distinguish the one from the other, both being then in the dress of 
