SPECIES 8. EMBERIZA GRAMINEA.

BAY-WINGED BUNTING.

[Plate XXXI.-Fig. 5.]

Grass Finch, Arct. Zool. No. 253.-LATH. 111, 273.-TURTON, Syst. 1, p. 565.

THE manners of this bird bear great affinity to those of the common Bunting of Britain. It delights in frequenting grass and clover fields, perches on the tops of the fences, singing from the middle of April to the beginning of July, with a clear and pleasant note, in which particular it far excels its European relation. It is partially a bird of passage here, some leaving us and others remaining with us during the winter. In the month of March I observed them numerous in the lower parts of Georgia, where, according to Mr. Abbot, they are only winter visitants. They frequent the middle of fields more than hedges or thickets; run along the ground like a Lark, which they also resemble in the great breadth of their wings: they are timid birds; and rarely approach the farm house.

Their nest is built on the ground, in a grass or clover field, and formed of old withered leaves and dry grass; and lined with hair. The female lays four or five eggs of a grayish white. On the first week in May I found one of their nests with four young, from which circumstance I think it probable that they raise two or more broods in the same season.

This bird measures five inches and three quarters in length, and ten inches and a half in extent; the upper parts are cinereous brown, mottled with deep brown or black; lesser wing coverts. bright bay, greater black, edged with very pale brown; wings dusky, edged with brown; the exterior primary edged with white; tail sub-cuneiform, the outer feather white on the exterior edge,

and tipt with white, the next tipt and edged for half an inch with the same, the rest dusky, edged with pale brown; bill dark brown above, paler below; round the eye is a narrow circle of white; upper part of the breast yellowish white, thickly streaked with pointed spots of black that pass along the sides; belly and vent white; legs and feet flesh coloured; third wing feather from the body nearly as long as the tip of the wing when shut.

I can perceive little or no difference between the colours and markings of the male and female.

GENUS 37. TANAGRA. TANAGER.

SPECIES 1. T. RUBRA.

SCARLET TANAGER.

[Plate XI.-Figs. 3 and 4.]

Tanagra rubra, LINN. Syst. 1, p. 314, 3.-Cardinal de Canada, BRISS. Orn. III, p. 48, Pl. 2, fig. 5.—LATH. II, p. 217, No. 3.— Scarlet Sparrow, Edw. Pl. 343.—Canada Tanager, and Olive Tanager, Arct. Zool. p. 369, No. 237-238.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 6128.

THIS is one of the gaudy foreigners (and perhaps the most showy) that regularly visit us from the torrid regions of the south. He is drest in the richest scarlet, set off with the most jetty black, and comes, over extensive countries, to sojourn for a time among us. While we consider him entitled to all the rights of hospitality, we may be permitted to examine a little into his character, and endeavour to discover, whether he has any thing else to recommend him besides that of having a fine coat, and being a great traveller.

On or about the first of May this bird makes his appearance in Pennsylvania. He spreads over the United States, and is found even in Canada. He rarely approaches the habitations of man, unless perhaps to the orchard, where he sometimes builds; or to the cherry trees in search of fruit. The depth of the woods is his favourite abode. There, among the thick foliage of the tallest trees, his simple and almost monotonous notes chip, churr, repeated at short intervals, in a pensive tone, may be occasionally heard; which appear to proceed from a considerable distance though the bird be immediately above you; a faculty bestowed on him by the beneficent Author of Nature, no doubt for his protection; to compensate in a degree for the danger to which

his glowing colour would often expose him. Besides this usual note, he has, at times, a more musical chant, something resembling in mellowness that of the Baltimore Oriole. His food consists of large, winged insects, such as wasps, hornets and humble bees, and also of fruit, particularly those of that species of Vaccinium usually called huckle-berries, which in their season form almost his whole fare. His nest is built about the middle of May, on the horizontal branch of a tree, sometimes an apple tree, and is but slightly put together; stalks of broken flax, and dry grass, so thinly wove together that the light is easily perceivable through it, form the repository of his young. The eggs are three, of a dull blue, spotted with brown or purple. They rarely raise more than one brood in a season, and leave us for the south about the last week in August.

Among all the birds that inhabit our woods there is none that strike the eye of a stranger, or even a native, with so much brilliancy as this. Seen among the green leaves, with the light falling strongly on his plumage, he really appears beautiful. If he has little of melody in his notes to charm us, he has nothing in them to disgust. His manners are modest, easy, and inoffensive. He commits no depredations on the property of the husbandman; but rather benefits him by the daily destruction in spring of many noxious insects; and when winter approaches he is no plundering dependent, but seeks in a distant country for that sustenance which the severity of the season denies to his industry in this. He is a striking ornament to our rural scenery, and none of the meanest of our rural songsters. Such being the true traits of his character, we shall always with pleasure welcome this beautiful, inoffensive stranger, to our orchards, groves and forests.

The male of this species, when arrived at his full size and colours, is six inches and a half in length, and ten and a half broad. The whole plumage is of a most brilliant scarlet, except the wings and tail, which are of a deep black; the latter handsomely forked, sometimes minutely tipt with white, and the interior edges of the wing feathers nearly white; the bill is VOL. II.-D d

strong, considerably inflated like those of his tribe, the edge of the upper mandible somewhat irregular, as if toothed, and the whole of a dirty gamboge or yellowish horn colour; this however, like that of most other birds, varies according to the season. About the first of August he begins to moult; the young feathers coming out of a greenish yellow colour, until he appears nearly all dappled with spots of scarlet and greenish yellow. In this state of plumage he leaves us. How long it is before he recovers his scarlet dress, or whether he continues of this greenish colour all winter, I am unable to say. The iris of the eye is of a cream colour, the legs and feet light blue. The female (now I believe for the first time figured) is green above and yellow below; the wings and tail brownish black, edged with green. The young birds, during their residence here the first season, continue nearly of the same colour with the female. In this circumstance we again recognize the wise provision of the Deity, in thus clothing the female and the inexperienced young, in a garb so favourable for concealment among the foliage; as the weakness of the one, and the frequent visits of the other to her nest, would greatly endanger the safety of all. That the young males do not receive their red plumage until the early part of the succeeding spring, I think highly probable, from the circumstance of frequently finding their red feathers, at that season, intermixed with green ones, and the wings also broadly edged with green. These facts render it also probable that the old males regularly change their colour, and have a summer and winter dress; but this, farther observations must determine.

There is in the Brazils a bird of the same genus with this, and very much resembling it, so much so as to have been frequently confounded with it by European writers. It is the Tanagra Brazilia of Turton; and though so like, is a yet very distinct species from the present, as I have myself had the opportunity of ascertaining, by examining two very perfect specimens from Brazil, now in the possession of Mr. Peale, and comparing them with this. The principal differences are these: The plumage of the Brazilian is almost black at bottom, very deep scar