INDIGO BUNTING. 311 



clumsy and bulky affair of twigs, stems, grass, etc., lined with fine grass, 

 etc., sometimes with horse-hair. 



Eggs. 4-5 ; white, sometimes with blue or green tint, occasionally with 

 a few fine spots of purplish brown; 0.75 X 0.55. 



This very beautiful and rather famihar messenger of summer, 

 after passing the winter in tropical America, towards the 15 th 

 of May, decked in his brilliant azure livery of the nuptial sea- 

 son, 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, accompa- 

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

 the precincts of Labrador. After raising and training their 

 only brood in a uniform and more humble dress, the whole 

 family, in color like so many common Sparrows, 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 peninsula of Florida, they breed and 

 pass the summer as with us. There is reason, however, to 

 beHeve 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 boundary. 



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, particularly the 

 brilHant male, they still at this interesting period of procrea- 

 tion resort chiefly to the precincts of habitations, around which 

 they are far more common than in the solitary woods, seeking 

 their borders or the thickets by the sides of the road ; but 

 their favorite resort is the garden, where, from the topmost 

 bough of some tall tree which commands the whole wide land- 

 scape, the male regularly pours out his lively chant, and con- 

 tinues it for a considerable length of time. Nor is this song 



