XXXVIII 



THE INDIGO BUNTING 



ONE spring as I was playing in the grove I heard 

 a strange chirp and looking up into a tree saw a 

 new bird, a slender little fellow about the size of a vireo. 

 This bird appeared to me to be a deep blue green, tho 

 other people insist that his color is not green but blue. I 

 was much interested in the little stranger because I had 

 never heard of a green bird, so I promptly named it "the 

 green bird/' I went to the house and persuaded both 

 father and mother to come and see my find. We were not 

 long in locating it among the branches, but neither of 

 them had ever seen it in our woods before. They agreed, 

 however, that he must be an indigo bunting or, as a friend 

 a little later told me, an indigo finch. In fact, they had 

 both known him elsewhere. Now-a-days we call this bird 

 the "indigo bunting.'^ 



Evidently these birds were strangers in our neighbor- 

 hood, for many neighbor boys reported a new bird at about 

 the time I saw mine and they all said it was a little green 

 bird. They became abundant that spring and ever after 

 were among the regular inhabitants of our grove. I have 

 never been able to understand why birds that have not 

 been in the habit of living in a certain locality will on a 

 sudden move in in large numbers; but clearly that was 



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