PAINTED BUNTING. 
361 
broods in the same season. The young birds of both sexes, 
during the first season, are of a fine green olive above, and 
dull yellow below. The females undergo little or no change, 
but that of becoming of a more brownish cast. The males, 
on the contrary, are long and slow in arriving at their full 
variety of colours. In the second season, the blue on the 
head begins to make its appearance, intermixed with the olive 
green : the next year, the yellow shews itself on the back and 
rump ; and also the red, in detached spots, on the throat and 
lower parts. All these colours are completed in the fourth 
season, except, sometimes, that the green still continues on 
the tail. On the fourth and fifth season, the bird has attained 
his complete colours, and appears then as represented in the 
plate, (fig. 1.) No dependence, however, can be placed on 
the regularity of this change in birds confined in a cage, as 
the want of proper food, sunshine, and variety of climate, all 
conspire against the regular operations of nature. 
The Nonpareil is five inches and three quarters long, and 
eight inches and three quarters in extent ; head, neck above, 
and sides of the same, a rich purplish blue ; eyelid, chin, and 
whole lower parts, vermilion ; back and scapulars, glossy 
yellow, stained with rich green, and in old birds with red; 
lesser wing-coverts, purple ; larger, green ; wings, dusky red, 
sometimes edged with green ; lower part of the back, rump, 
and tail-coverts, deep glossy red, inclining to carmine ; tail, 
slightly forked, purplish brown (generally green ;) legs and 
feet, leaden gray ; bill, black above, pale blue below ; iris of 
the eye, hazel. 
The female (fig. 2.) is five and a half inches long, and eight 
inches in extent ; upper parts, green olive, brightest on the 
rump; lower parts, a dusky Naples yellow, brightest on the 
belly ; and tinged considerably on the breast with dull green, 
or olive ; cheeks, or ear-feathers, marked with lighter touches ; 
bill, wholly a pale lead colour, lightest below ; legs and feet, 
the same. 
The food of these birds consists of rice, insects, and various 
