IOO 
Brewster on Southern Birds. 
the day one' might hear his emphatic, jerky little strain, coming 
from half-a-dozen points at once. I noticed that the note varied 
considerably from that which we hear in New England, and, 
moreover, scarcely two of the southern birds sang exactly alike. 
Some individuals even seemed to have a talent for mimicry. One 
that I remember imitated the note of the Loggerhead Shrike so 
closely that I was completely deceived. The nest of this bird 
is a wonderfully delicate and beautiful structure. One that I got 
at St. Mary’s contained its complement of four eggs on April 
26. I discovered it twelve days previously when the birds were 
busily employed on the framework. The male took an equal 
part in this task and it was amusing to see him try to sing with 
his bill full of moss or bark. 
The Painted Buntings or Nonpareils, as they are universally 
called by the townspeople, arrived April 23 and through the re- 
mainder of the month were abundant. I used to find them in 
flocks about the openings where they spent much of their time on 
the ground. They w T ere timid rather than shy, flying to the thick- 
ets upon the slightest alarm, but wdien once conscious of being 
pursued, it was difficult to get a shot at one. The brilliant plumage 
of the adult male makes him a conspicuous object either on the 
ground or in green foliage, but it is no easy matter to see one 
among the flowers of the trumpet-vine where they often seek ref- 
uge, apparently fully conscious of the protection afforded by the 
clusters of scarlet blossoms. The young males during the first 
year are colored precisely like the females. They sing, and for 
aught I knows breed, while in this condition. The song is a low, 
pleasing warble very un-Finch-like in character. I should com- 
pare it to that of the Canada Flycatcher, but the notes are less 
emphatic, though equally disconnected. The bird almost inva- 
riably sings in the depths of some thicket, and its voice ceases 
at the slightest noise. Both sexes have a sharp chirp of alarm 
which closely resembles that of the Indigo Finch. Most of the 
Nonpareils left St. Mary’s by May 1, but a few r pairs remained up 
to the time of my departure, when they w r ere apparently preparing 
to breed. Another familiar inhabitant of these thickets w r as the 
Towhee Bunting. Two distinct races of this bird were to be met 
Wuth during the same wmlk, but never, so far as my observation 
went, actually in company. The Red-eyed or northern form, ery- 
throphthahnus proper, apparently occurred only as a winter 
