190 
OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 
About the middle of August, in congregating numbers, 
divested already of all selective attachment, vast foraging 
parties enter New York and Pennsylvania, on their way 
to the south. Here, along the shores of the large rivers, 
lined with floating fields of the Wild Rice,* they find an 
abundant means of subsistence during their short stay ; 
and as their flesh, now fat, is little inferior to that of the 
European Ortolan, the Reed or Rice birds , as they are 
then called in their Sparrow-dress, form a favorite sport 
for gunners of all descriptions, who turn out on the occa- 
sion, and commit prodigious havock among the almost 
silent and greedy roosting throng. The markets are then 
filled with this delicious game, and the pursuit, both for 
success and amusement, along the picturesque and reedy 
shores of the Delaware, and other rivers, is second to 
none but that of Rail- shoo ting. As soon as the cool 
nights of October commence, and as the Wild Rice crops 
begin to fail, the Reed-birds take their departure from 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in their further pro- 
gress through the southern States they swarm in the Rice 
fields, and before the crop is gathered they have already 
made their appearance in the islands of Cuba and Ja- 
maica, where they also feed on the seeds of the Guinea 
grass, f become so fat as to deserve the name of ‘Butter- 
birds,’ and are in high esteem for the table. 
The Rice-Troopial is inches long, and 11 \ in extent. The dress 
of the male, on arriving, is with the upper part of the head, wings, 
tail, sides of the neck, and whole lower parts, black ; the feathers 
frequently skirted with brownish yellow, but more particularly so as 
he puts on the livery of the female ; the back of the head yellowish 
white 3 scapulars, rump, and tail coverts white, and all except the 
first tinged with ash. Feathers of the tail sharp at the end, (as 
among the Woodpeckers.) Iris hazel. Bill bluish black ) in the 
female, young bird, and autumnal male, pale flesh-color. 
* Zizania species, 
f Sorghum , 
