360 
PAINTED BUNTING. 
have been made to breed them, and with success. When 
the employments of the people of the United States become 
more sedentary, like those of Europe, the innocent and 
agreeable amusement of keeping and rearing birds in this 
manner, will become more general than it is at present, and 
their manners better known. And I cannot but think, that 
an intercourse with these little innocent warblers is favourable 
to delicacy of feeling, and sentiments of humanity ; for I have 
observed the rudest and most savage softened into benevolence 
while contemplating the interesting manners of these inoffensive 
little creatures. 
Six of these birds, which I brought with me from New 
Orleans by sea, soon became reconciled to the cage. In good 
weather, the males sang with great sprightliness, though they 
had been caught only a few days before my departure. They 
were greedily fond of flies, which accompanied us in great 
numbers during the whole voyage ; and many of the passengers 
amused themselves with catching these, and giving them to 
the Nonpareils; till, at length, the birds became so well 
acquainted with this amusement, that as soon as they perceived 
any of the people attempting to catch flies, they assembled at 
the front of the cage, stretching out their heads through the 
wires with eager expectation, evidently much interested in 
the issue of their efforts. 
These birds arrive in Louisiana, from the south, about the 
middle of April, and begin to build early in May. In 
Savannah, according to Mr Abbot, they arrive about the 
20th of April. Their nests are usually fixed in orange 
hedges, or on the lower branches of the orange tree ; I have 
also found them in a common bramble or blackberry bush. 
They are formed exteriorly of dry grass, intermingled with 
the silk of caterpillars, lined with hair, and, lastly, with some 
extremely fine roots of plants. The eggs are four or five, 
white, or rather pearl coloured, marked with purplish brown 
specks. As some of these nests had eggs so late as the 25th 
of June, I think it probable that they sometimes raise two 
