riptions, and many a lame and rusty
gun-barrel is put in requisition for the sport. The report of musketry
along the reedy shores of the Delaware and Schuylkill is almost
incessant, resembling a running fire. The markets of Philadelphia, at
this season, exhibit proofs of the prodigious havoc made among these
birds, for almost every stall is ornamented with some hundreds of
Reed Birds.

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 he
passes into the color of the female; back of the head, a cream color;
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 even in the
cage; legs, a brownish flesh color; hind heel, very long; bill, a
bluish-horn color; eye, hazel. In the month of June this plumage
gradually changes to a brownish-yellow, like that of the female, which
has the back streaked with brownish-black; whole lower parts,
dull-yellow; bill, reddish-flesh color; legs and eyes as in the male.
The young birds retain the dress of the female until early in the
succeeding spring. The plumage of the female undergoes no material
change of color.

[Illustration: CEDAR BIRD. (_Ampelis Americana._)]

The Cedar-Bird, (_Ampelis Americana_,) is very frequently shot at the
same time with the Robin. The plumage of this bird is of an
exquisitely fine and silky texture, lying extremely smooth and glossy.
The name Chatterers has been given to them, but they make only a
feeble, lisping sound, chiefly as they rise or alight. On the Blue
Mountains, and other ridges of the Alleghanies, they spend the months
of August and September, feeding on the abundant whortleberries; then
they descend to the lower cultivated parts of the country to feed on
the berries of the sour gum and red cedar. In the fall and beginning
of summer, when fat, they are in high esteem for the table, and great
numbers find purchasers in the market of Philadelphia. They have
derived their name from one kind of their favorite food; from other
sorts they have also been called Cher