224 
ICTERUS AGRIPENNIS. 
vanians — at least those living in this part of it — have 
little to plead in justification, but the pleasure of 
destruction, or the savoury dish they furnish their 
tables with ; for the oat harvest is generally secured 
before the great body of these birds arrive, the Indian 
corn too ripe and hard, and the reeds seem to engross 
all their attention. But in the States south of Mary- 
land, the harvest of early wheat and barley in spring, 
and the numerous plantations of rice in fall, suffer 
severely. Early in October, or as soon as the nights 
begin to set in cold, they disappear from Pennsylvania, 
directing their course to the south. At this time they 
swarm among the rice fields ; and appear in the Island 
of Cuba in immense numbers, in search of the same 
delicious grain. About the middle of October, they 
visit the Island of Jamaica in equal numbers, where 
they are called butter birds. They feed on the seed of 
the Guinea grass, and are also in high esteem there for 
the table.* 
Thus it appears, that the regions north of the fortieth 
degree of latitude, are the breeding places of these 
birds ; that their migrations northerly are performed 
from March to May, and their return southerly from 
August to November ; their precise winter quarters, or 
farthest retreat southerly, is not exactly known. 
The rice bunting is seven inches and a half long, and 
eleven and a half in extent; his spring dress is as 
follows: — Upper part of the head, wings, tail, and 
sides of the neck, and whole lower parts, black; the 
feathers frequently skirted with brownish yellow, as 
be passes into the colours of the female; back of 
the head, a cream colour; back, black, seamed with 
brownish yellow ; scapulars, pure white, rump and tail- 
coverts the same ; lower part of the back, bluish 
white ; tail, formed like those of the woodpecker 
genus, and often used in the same manner, being 
thrown in to support it while ascending the stalks of 
the reed ; this habit of throwing in the tail it retains 
* Renners Hist. Jam . 
