These birds, he states, arrive in Louisiana from the South about the middle of April, and build early in May. They reach Savannah about the 20th of April. Their nests are usually fixed in orange hedges or in the lower branches of the trees. He often found them in common bramble and blackberry bushes. They are formed exteriorly of dry grass intermingled with the silk of caterpillars, with hair and fine rootlets. Some nests had eggs as late as the 25th of June, which were probably a second brood. The food of this bird consists of rice, insects, and various kinds of seeds. They also feed on the seeds of ripe figs. A single specimen of this species was detected by Mr. Ridgway in Southern Illinois between Olney and Mount Carmel, on the 10th of June. It is therefore presumed to be a rare summer resident in that locality. The Nonpareil is possessed of a very pugnacious disposition, and, according to Mr. Audubon, the bird-dealers of New Orleans take advantage of this peculiarity in a very ingenious manner to trap them. A male bird is stuffed and set up in an attitude of defence on the platform of a trap-cage. The first male bird of this species that notices it is sure to make an attack upon it, and is at once trapped. So pertinacious are they that even when thus imprisoned the captive repeats its attack upon its supposed rival. They feed almost immediately upon being caught, and usually thrive in confinement, Audubon mentioning one that had been caged for ten years. This bird is very easily made to breed in confinement. Dr. Bachman has had a single pair thus raise three broods in a season. The eggs of this species measure .80 by .65 of an inch, and do not at all resemble the eggs of the _cyanea_ or _amœna_. They have a dull or pearly-white ground, and are very characteristically marked with blotches and dots of purplish and reddish brown. GENUS SPERMOPHILA, SWAINSON. _Spermophila_, SWAINSON, Zoöl. Jour. III, Nov. 1827, 348. (Type, _Pyrrhula falcirostris_, TEMM. Sufficiently distinct from _Spermophilus_, F. CUV. 1822.) _Sporophila_, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 148. (Type, _Fringilla hypoleuca_, LICHT.) [Line drawing: _Spermophila moreleti._ 30524 ♂] GEN. CHAR. Bill very short and very much curved, as in _Pyrrhula_, almost as deep as long; the commissure concave, abruptly bent towards the end. Tarsus about equal to middle toe; inner toe rather the longer (?), reaching about to the base of the middle one; hind toe to the middle of this claw. Wings short, reaching over the posterior third of the exposed part of the tail; the tertiaries gradually longer than the secondaries, neither much shorter than the primaries, which are graduated, and but little different in length, the first shorter than the sixth, the second and fourth equal. The tail is about as long as the wings, rounded, all the feathers slightly graduated, rather sharply acuminate and decidedly mucronate. Smallest of American passerine birds.