242 
FAMILY XV.*— FRINGILLIN2E. FINCHES. 
Genus Il.f— EMBERIZA, Linn . BUNTING. 
BAIRD’S BUNTING. 
Emberiza Bairdii, Aud. 
PLATE D. — Adult Male. 
During one of our Buffalo hunts, on the 26th July, 1843, we happened to 
pass along several wet places, closely overgrown by a kind of slender rush- 
like grass, from which we heard the notes of this species, and which we 
thought were produced by Marsh Wrens, ( Troglodytes palustris,) and my 
friends Harris and John G. Bell immediately went in search of the birds. 
Mr. Bell soon discovered that the notes of Baird’s Bunting were softer and 
more prolonged than those of the Marsh Wren. They had much difficulty 
in raising them from the close and rather long grass, to which this species 
'appears to confine itself ; several times Mr. Bell nearly trod on some of 
them, before the birds would take to wing, and they almost instantaneously 
re-alighted within a few steps, and then ran like mice through the grass. 
After awhile, however, two were shot on the wing, and both fortunately 
were found, and proved to be an adult male and female. We found this 
species abundant in all such situations as I have mentioned above, and doubt- 
less it breeds in them. 
I have named this species after my young friend Spencer F. Baird, of 
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 
Baird’s Bunting, Emberiza Bairdii , Aud. 
Wet portions of the prairies of the Upper Missouri. 
Male. 
Bill stout and longish ; wings rather long and broad, the second quill the 
* See vol. iii. p. 49. 
f Ibid. p. 58. 
