_Passerina ciris. Case 6, Figs. 49, 50_
The male is one of our most brilliantly colored
birds, the female has the color of a Vireo but the
bill of a Sparrow.
_Range._ Southern States north to southeastern
North Carolina and southern Kansas; winters from
southern Florida southward.
"Painted" Bunting he is called, but the brilliancy and luster of his
plumage were not painted by human hands. 'Nonpareil' he has also been
named, and, in the eastern United States, at least, he is without equal
in the brightness of his colors. The bird's haunts are not unlike those
of the Indigo Bunting, and its song is said to resemble the Indigo's but
to be more feeble. It builds in bushes and low trees, laying 3-4 bluish
white, brown-spotted eggs in May.