180 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
F, — On the fifteenth^ I observed several little feathered 
strangers : the trees and bushes being still leafless, afford faci- 
lities for discovering birds, which a few weeks later we shall 
not possess. The first I noticed was that well-knovm bird, 
the Ricebunting ( Emberiza Oryzimra J, familiarly known 
to everybody here by the name of Bob Lincoln, from his 
callj, uttered as he sits on a rail of the fence^ or a branch of 
a tree^ which much resembles the words Bob Lincoln/' but 
still more Bob Ijinkling^' whistled with a very peculiar 
intonation^ the middle syllable being in a much higher note 
than the others. Yonder one sits on the fence now : do you 
note his call ? 
C. — Yes ; he repeats his name very distinctly : as a 
stranger^ he perhaps thinks it a point of politeness to an- 
nounce himself. He is a pretty but singularly marked bird ; 
the whole of the under parts being deep black, and the back 
of his head and neck white, and his back being chiefly of the 
same colour, make a very curious appearance ; the distribu- 
tion of the colours being opposite to that of most other 
birds, which have the darkest tints above, and the lightest 
beneath. 
F, — This is the male : the female has the back brownish, 
and the under parts dull yellow; and in the summer the 
male throws off his black and white dress^, and becomes like 
his mate. I have never known them to do us any consider- 
able injury, but in New England, and in the Southern States, 
they do great damage ; in the former, by devouring the oat 
crop in summer, and in the latter, by the devastations they 
commit in the wheat fields in spring, and among the rice in 
autumn. For these reasons, and because his flesh is highly 
esteemed, no mercy is shown to him ; but the immense 
flocks that appear are thinned by the combined guns of all 
the sportsmen in their vicinity. 
C. — Has he no other notes but the Bob Linkhng V* 
