FEINGILLID.E — THE FINCHES. 83 



and rocky pastures, which I have never noticed. According to Dr. Cones, it 

 is common and breeds as far south as Columbia, S. C, and, according to Mr. 

 Mcllwraith, it is a common summer resident in the neighborhood of Hamil- 

 ton, Canada West. Specimens have been procured as lar west as Fort Eiley 

 in Kansas. It passes the winter in Guatemala, where it is quite abundant, 

 though a very large proportion of specimens received from there, in collec- 

 tions, are immature birds. It was not found in Vera Cruz by Mr. Sumi- 

 chrast, nor is it given by Mr. Allen as found by him in Western Iowa, while 

 it was common both in Northern Illinois and in Indiana. It was, however, 

 found by Mr. Allen, in Kansas, in considerable numbers, near Leavenworth, 

 in the spring of 1871. It was not met with by Mr. Dresser in Southwest- 

 ern Texas, though Dr. Woodhouse found it quite common in the prairies of 

 that State, where its pleasant song was heard in the timber on their edges, 

 or in the thickets on the borders of the streams in the Indian Territory, 

 where it was quite abundant. It was not observed on the Mexican Bound- 

 ary Survey. 



These birds were found, by Mr. Boucard, abundant throughout the State 

 of Oaxaca, Mexico, having been taken both among the mountains near To- 

 tontepec, and among the hot lowlands near Plaza A^icente. 



According to Wilson, this bird is not noticed in Pennsylvania much, if 

 any, earlier than its first appearance in New England, and it leaves at about 

 the same time. He observed it in great abundance both in South Carolina 

 and Georgia. 



In manners it is active and sprightly, and its song is vigorous and pleas- 

 ant. It is considered a better singer than either tlie ciris or the amcena. It 

 usually stations itself, in singing, on some high position, the top of a tree or 

 of a chimney, where it chants its peculiar and cliarming song for quite a 

 space of time. Its song consists of a repetition of short notes, at first loud 

 and rapid, but gradually less frequent, and becoming less and less distinct. 

 It sings with equal animation both in May and July, and its song may be 

 occasionally heard even into August, and not less during the noonday heat 

 of summer than in the cool of the morning. Nuttall describes its animated 

 song as a lively strain, composed of a repetition of short notes. The most 

 common of its vocal expressions sounds like tshe-tshe-tshc, repeated several 

 times. While the female is engaged in the cares of incubation, or just as 

 the brood has appeared, the song of the male is said to be much shortened. 

 In the village of Cambridge, Nuttall observed one of this species regularly 

 chanting its song from the point of a forked lightning-rod, on a very tall 

 house. 



The Indigo Bird usually builds its nest in the centre of a low thick bush. 

 The first nest I ever met with was built in a thick sumach that had grown up 

 at the bottom of a deep excavation, some fifteen feet below the surface, and 

 but two feet above the base of the shrub. This same nest was occupied five 

 successive summers. It was almost wholly built of matting that the birds 



