474 GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 



beneath pale yellowish- white. — Young and autumnal male, as 

 the female, but more tinged with bluish. 



This very beautiful and rather familiar messenger of 

 summer, after passing the winter in tropical America, 

 towards the 15th of May, decked in his brilliant azure 

 livery, of the nuptial season, again joyfully visits his natal 

 regions, in the Middle States ; and about a week or ten 

 days later his lively trill in the garden, orchard, or on 

 the top of the house, its chimney, or vane, is first heard 

 in this part of New England. Still later, accompanied by 

 his mate, he passes on to Nova Scotia, and probably to 

 the, precincts of Labrador. After raising and training 

 their only brood, in an uniform and more humble dress, 

 the whole family, in color like so many common Spar- 

 rows, begin to retire to the South from the first to the 

 middle of September. They are also known in Mexico, 

 where, as well as in the Southern States to the penin- 

 sula of Florida, they probably breed and pass the sum- 

 mer as with us. There is reason, however, to believe 

 that they are less abundant, if seen at all, to the west of 

 the Mississippi ; but yet they are met with in the Western 

 States up to the alluvial lands of that great natural boun- 

 dary. 



Their food in the early part of the season, as well as 

 that of their young for a considerable time, is chiefly 

 insects, worms, and caterpillars, as well as grasshoppers, 

 of which they are particularly fond. They likewise eat 

 seeds of various kinds, and are readily reared in a cage 

 on the usual diet of the Canary. 



Though naturally shy, active, and suspicious, particu- 

 larly the brilliant male, they still, at this interesting pe- 

 riod of procreation, resort chiefly to the precincts of hab- 

 itations, around which they are far more common than in 

 the solitary woods, seeking their borders, or the thickets 



