Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. / Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions, Together With Observations on the Manners of the Indians.

by William Bartram

I shall first mention the rice bird, (emberiza oryzivora.) It is the commonly received opinion that they are male and female of the same species, i. e. the black pied rice bird the male, and a yellowish clay coloured one the female: the last mentioned appearing only in the autumn, when the oryza zizania are about ripening, yet in my opinion there are some strong circumstances which seem to operate against such a conjecture, though generally believed.

In the spring, about the middle of May, the black pied rice bird (which is called the male) appears in Pennsylvania; at that time the great yellow ephemera, called May fly, and a species of locusta appear in incredible multitudes, the favourite delicious food of these birds, when they are sprightly, vociferous, and pleasingly tuneful.

When I was at St. Augustine, in E. Florida, in the beginning of April, the same species of grasshoppers were in multitudes on the fields and commons about the town; when great flights of these male rice birds suddenly arrived from the South, who by feeding on these insects became extremely fat and delicious: they continued here two or three weeks, until their food became scarce, when they disappeared, I suppose pursuing their journey North after the locusta and ephemera; there were a few of the yellow kind, or true rice bird, to be seen amongst them. Now these pied rice birds seem to observe the same order and time in their migrations Northerly, with the other spring birds of passage, and are undoubtedly on their way to their breeding place; but then there are no females with them, at least not one to ten thousand of the male colour, which cannot be supposed are a sufficient number to pair and breed by. Being in Charleston in the month of June, I observed at a gentleman’s door, a cage full of rice birds, that is of the yellow or female colour, who were very merry and vociferous, having the same variable music with the pied or male kind, which I thought extraordinary, and observing it to the gentleman, he assured me that they were all of the male kind, taken the preceding spring, but had changed their colour, and would be next spring of the colour of the pied, thus changing colour with the seasons of the year. If this is really the case, it appears they are both of the same species intermixed, spring and fall. In the spring they are gay, vociferous and tuneful birds.

Ampelis garrulus; crown bird or cedar bird. These birds feed on various sorts of succulent fruit and berries, associating in little flocks or flights, and are to be seen in all the regions from Canada to New Orleans on the Mississippi, and how much farther South and South-West I know not. They observe no fixed time of appearance in Pennsylvania, but are to be seen a few days every month of the year, so that it is difficult to determine at what season they breed, or where. The longest period of their appearance in Pennsylvania is in the spring and first of June, at the time the early cherries are ripe, when they are numerous; and in the autumn when the Cedar berries are ripe (Juniperus Americana) they arrive in large flights, and, with the robins (turdus migratorius) and yellow rump (parus cedrus) soon strip those trees of their berries, after which they disappear again; but in November and December they appear in smaller flights, feeding on the fruit of the Persimon (Dyosperos Virginiana;) and some are seen till March, subsisting upon Smilax berries, Privet (Ligustrum vulgare) and other permanent fruits; after which they disappear until May and June. I have been informed by some people in Pennsylvania, that they have found their nests at these seasons in Pennsylvania.

Linaria ciris (emberiza ciris Linn.) or painted finch, or nonpareil of Catesby, is not seen North of Cape Fear, in North Carolina, and seldom ten miles from the sea coast, or perhaps twenty or thirty miles, near the banks of great rivers, in fragrant groves of the Orange (Citrus aurantium) Zanthoxylon, Laurus Borbonia, Cassine, Sideroxylon, &c.

Linaria cyanea (tanagra Linn.) the blue linnet, is supposed by some to be the nonpareil, in an early stage of life, not being yet arrived to his brilliancy and variety of colours; but this is certainly a mistake, for the blue linnet is longer and of a slenderer configuration, and their notes more variable, vehement and sonorous. And they inhabit the continent and sea coast islands from Mexico to Nova Scotia, from the sea coast, west beyond the Apalachian and Cherokee mountains. The songs of the nonpareil are remarkably low, soft and warbling, exceedingly tender and soothing.

Catesby, in his history of Carolina, speaking of the cat-bird (muscicapa vertice nigro) says, “They have but one note, which resembles the mewing of a cat;” a mistake very injurious to the fame of that bird; he, in reality, being one of our most eminent songsters, little inferior to the philomela or mock-bird; and, in some remarkable instances, perhaps, exceeds them both, in particular as a buffoon or mimick. He endeavours to imitate every bird and animal, and in many attempts does not ill succeed, even in rehearsing the songs, which he attentively listens to, from the shepherdess and rural swain, and will endeavour and succeed to admiration, in repeating the melodious and variable airs from instrumental music, and this in his wild state of nature. They are a kind of domestic bird during their spring and summer residence in Pennsylvania, building their nests in gardens and sheltering themselves in groves near the houses. They cause great trouble and vexation to hens that have broods of chickens, by imitating their distressing cries, in which they seem to enjoy much delight, and cause some amusement to persons who are diverted at such incidents. They are the first bird heard singing in the morning, even before break of day.

They seem to be a tribe of birds separated by nature from the motacillæ, with which the zoologists have classed them, and appear allied to a tribe peculiar to America, to which Edwards has given the name of manakin. In their nature they seem to take place between the thrush (turdus) and motacilla, their beak being longer, stronger and straighter than the motacilla, and formed for eating fruit, which is their chief food; yet they will feed on reptile insects, but never attempt to take their prey on the wing.

Catesby is chargeable with the like mistake with respect to the little thrush (t. minor) and the fox coloured thrush (t. rufes) both eminent singers, and the latter little inferior to the mock-bird. The former for his shrill, sonorous and elevated strains in the high, shady forests; and the latter for variety, softness and constant responses in the hegdes and groves near houses.

But yet Catesby has some right of claim to our excuse and justification, for his detraction of the fame due to these eminent musicians of the groves and forests, when we consider that he resided and made his collections and observations, in the regions which are the winter retreats and residence of these birds, where they rarely sing, as it is observable and most true, that it is only at the time of incubation, that birds sing in their wild state of nature. The cat-bird, great and less thrush and fieldfare seldom or never build in Carolina beneath the mountains, except the great or fox coloured thrush in a few instances; but all these breed in Pennsylvania.