“About the middle of April, the orange groves of the lower parts of Louisiana, and more especially those in the immediate vicinity of the City of New Orleans, are abundantly supplied with this beautiful little Sparrow.  But no sooner does it make its appearance than trap-cages are set, and a regular business is commenced in the market of that city.  The method employed in securing the male Painted Finch is so connected with its pugnacious habits, that I feel inclined to describe it, especially as it is so different from the common way of alluring birds, that it may afford you, kind reader, some amusement.

A male bird in full plumage is shot and stuffed in a defensive attitude, and perched among some grass seed, rice, or other food, on the same platform as the trap-cage.  This is taken to the fields or near the orangeries, and placed in so open a situation, that it would be difficult for a living bird of any species to fly over it, without observing it.  The trap is set.  A male Painted Finch passes, perceives it, and dives towards the stuffed bird, with all the anger which its little breast can contain.  It alights on the edge of the trap for a moment, and throwing its body against the stuffed bird, brings down the trap, and is made prisoner.  In this manner, thousands of these birds are caught every spring.  So pertinacious are they in their attacks, that even when the trap has closed upon them, they continue pecking at the feathers of the supposed rival.  The approach of man seems to allay its anger in a moment.

. . . they may be observed in spring time, in little groups of four, five or six, fighting together, moving round each other to secure an advantageous position, pecking and pulling at each other’s feathers with all the violence and animosity to which their small degree of strength can give effect.

. . . The Chicaksaw Wild Plum, on a twig of which I have represented a group of these birds, is found growing abundantly in the country where the birds occur.  It is a small shrub, the fruit of which is yellow when ripe, and excellent eating.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 279-281 [excerpted].