So full of fight is this little bird, that the bird trappers take
advantage of his disposition to make him a prisoner. They place a
decoy bird on a cage trap in the attitude of defense, and when it is
discovered by the bird an attack at once follows, and the fighter soon
finds himself caught.
They are a great favorite for the cage, being preferred by many to the
Canary. Whatever he may lack as a songster he more than makes up by his
wonderful beauty. These birds are very easily tamed, the female, even in
the wild state, being so gentle that she allows herself to be lifted
from the nest. They are also called the _Painted Finch_ or _Painted
Bunting_. They are found in our Southern States and Mexico. They are
very numerous in the State of Louisiana and especially about the City of
New Orleans, where they are greatly admired by the French inhabitants,
who, true to their native instincts, admire anything with gay colors. As
the first name indicates, he has no equal, perhaps, among the songsters
for beauty of dress. On account of this purple hood, he is called by the
French _Le Pape_, meaning The Pope.
The bird makes its appearance in the Southern States the last of April
and, during the breeding season, which lasts until July, two broods are
raised. The nests are made of fine grass and rest in the crotches of
twigs of the low bushes and hedges. The eggs have a dull or pearly-white
ground and are marked with blotches and dots of purplish and reddish
brown.
It is very pleasing to watch the numerous changes which the feathers
undergo before the male bird attains his full beauty of color. The young
birds of both sexes during the first season are of a fine olive green
color on the upper parts and a pale yellow below. The female undergoes
no material change in color except becoming darker as she grows older.
The male, on the contrary, is three seasons in obtaining his full
variety of colors. In the second season the blue begins to show on his
head and the red also makes its appearance in spots on the breast. The
third year he attains his full beauty.
Their favorite resorts are small thickets of low trees and bushes, and
when singing they select the highest branches of the bush. They are
passionately fond of flies and insects and also eat seeds and rice.
Thousands of these birds are trapped for the cage, and sold annually to
our northern people and also in Europe. They are comparatively cheap,
even in our northern bird markets, as most of them are exchanged for our
Canaries and imported birds that cannot be sent directly to the south on
account of climatic conditions.
Many a northern lady, while visiting the orange groves of Florida,
becomes enchanted with the Nonpareil in his wild state, and some shrewd
and wily negro, hearing her expressions of delight, easily procures one,
and disposes of it to her at an extravagant price.