200 
RICE BUNTING. 
corn, and the seed of the wild oats, or, as it is called in Penn- 
sylvania, reeds, (the Zizania aquatica of Linnaeus,) which 
grows in prodigious abundance along the marshy shores of 
our large rivers, furnish, 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 parti- 
cularly 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 boun- 
daries of the United States ; and are seen around the town 
of Savannah in Georgia, about the 4th of May, sometimes 
in separate parties of males and females, but more generally 
promiscuously. They remain there but a short time ; and, 
about the 12th of May, make their appearance in the lower 
parts of Pennsylvania, 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 caterpillars, of which 
they destroy great quantities. In their passage, however, 
through Virginia, at this season, they do great damage to the 
early wheat and barley, while in its milky state. About the 
20th 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 in 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 
