Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/402



In honouring so humble an object as this Finch with the name of Bachman, my aim is to testify the high regard in which I hold that learned and most estimable individual, to whose friendship I owe more than I can express on this occasion.

" In the month of April ISSS," says my worthy friend, the gentle- man just named, " I discovered near Parker's Ferry, on the Edisto River, in this State, a Fringilla which I had not seen before, and which, on investigation, I found had never been described. On seai'ching for the same bird in the neighbourhood of Charleston, I discovered it breeding in small numbers on the Pine Barrens, about six miles north of this city, where I obtained many specimens of it.

" This bird appears to be rarer in Carolina than it really is. It is in fact oftener heard than seen. When I first heard its notes, they so nearly resembled those of the Towee Bunting, that I took it to be that bird : a somewhat greater softness, and a slight variation in the notes, alone induced me to suspect that it was another, and caused me to go in pursuit of it. Since then I have heard as many as tive or six in the course of a morning's ride, but found it almost impossible to get even a sight of the bird. This was owing, not to its being particularly wild, but to the habits it possesses of darting from the tall pine-trees, where it usually sits to warble out its melodious notes, and concealing itself in the tall brome-grass which is almost invariably found in those places which it frequents. As soon as alighted, it keeps running off in the grass, hke a mouse, and it is extremely difficult to put them up, or see them after- wards.

"It breeds in Carolina, to all appearance on the ground, where it is usually found when not singing. I never saw its nest ; but in the month of June last (1833), I observed two pair of these birds, each having four young ones, that were pretty well fledged, and following their parents along the low scrubb oaks of the pine lands.

"This is decidedly the finest songster of the Sparrow Family with