INDIGO BUNTING. 313 



vine. If left undisturbed, they often build in the same garden 

 or orchard for several successive years. When in a bush, the 

 nest is suspended betwixt two twigs, passing up on either side. 

 Externally it is composed of coarse sedge-grass, some withered 

 leaves, and lined with fine stalks of the same, and the slender 

 hair-like tops of the bent-grass {Agrostis), with a very few 

 cow-hairs ; though sometimes they make a substantial lining of 

 hair. The nest which I saw in the vine was composed out- 

 wardly of coarse strips of bass-mat, weeds, and some strings 

 picked up in the garden, and lined with horse-hair and a few 

 tops of bent-grass. The young here scarcely leave the nest 

 before the end of July or the first week in August, and they 

 raise usually but a single brood in the season. They appear 

 to show great timidity about their nest, and often readily for- 

 sake it when touched, or when an egg is abstracted. Their 

 usual note of alarm when themselves or their young are 

 approached is a sharp tship, quickly and anxiously repeated, 

 resembling almost the striking of two pebbles. They will not 

 forsake their young, however ready they may be to relinquish 

 their eggs; and they have been known to feed their brood 

 very faithfully through the bars of a cage in which they were 

 confined. 



This species is a common summer resident from South Carolina 

 to western Maine and the city of Quebec, and westward through 

 Ontario and Illinois to the Great Plains. It also occurs occasion- 

 ally in eastern Maine and the Maritime Provinces. 



Note. — One example of the Varied Bunting {Passerina 

 versicolor) has been captured in southern Michigan. Its usual 

 habitat is the valley of the Rio Grande and Lower California. 



