220 
ICTERUS AGRIPENNIS. 
not a Single gram of rice cultivated within the United 
btetes, the country produces an exuberance of food of 
which they are no less fond. Insects of various kinds, 
CT-ubs, May-ilies, and caterpillars, the young ears of 
Indian corn, and the seed of the wild oats, oV, as it is 
^lled in Pennsylvania, reeds (the zizania ammtica of 
Liiinieus,) winch grows in prodigious abundance alon? 
tile marsly shores of our large rivers, furnish, not only 
them, but millions of rail, with a delicious subsistence 
tor several weeks. I do not doubt, however, that the 
imroduction of nee, but more particularly the nro«Te.sS 
of agriculture in this part of Ameiica, has grSatlV 
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 
nee bunting, male and female, .arriye within the soiitherii 
boundaries of the Uuited States; and are seen around 
^e town of Savannah, in (Jeorgia, about the 4th of 
May, sometimes lu separate p.arties of males and females, 
but more generally promiscuously. They remain there 
but a short time; and, about the 12th of May, make 
t ^v ™ l‘onnsyl/auia, as 
they did at havaunah. While here, the males are eX- 
nTwIvnlo Tl "ift la** M fre<iucntiug meadou'S, 
r riversrand water/ 
^aces feeding on May-flies-a^^',;;;;;;.^ 
lautities. In their passage, hon" 
they destroy great quantities, m tl.eir passage, hi 
eyer, through Virguiia, at this season, they do -rreat 
state About the 20tti of May, they di.sappear, on their 
way to the north. Nearly at the same time, the/ 
ariiye in ho State of New York, spread over the whole 
frZ fal? n f “f. Lawrence, 
..nrfl. ‘ I*" i" “'i places, 
north of I emrsylyama, they remain during the summer, 
building, and rearing their young. The nest is lixed 
m the ground, generally in a Held ofgra.ss; the outside 
IS composed of dry leaves and coarse grass, the inside 
bued with hne stalks of the same, laid in considerable 
