.246 EEPOET OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



The Indigo-bird is one of our most persistent songsters. No sum- 

 mer day seems too hot for his performance, and while other species 

 await the cool of the approaching evening, he pours forth his energetic 

 song full in the boiling sun, perched on some tree or telegraph wire. 



His brilliant plumage is not perceptible against the sky, and it is 

 only when we find him near the ground that we get a background that 

 shows us his true colors. The Sparrow-like female may be recog- 

 nized by the plain brown coloration and the faint trace of blue on the 

 shoulders and tail. The Indigo is a bird of the fields, clearings, and 

 edges of woodland, though he comes now and then into the garden. 



601 Passerina ciris (Linnaeus). 

 Painted Bunting, Nonpareil. 



Adult male. — Length, 5.25. Wing, 2.70. Head and neck, blue ; bacli, green, 

 tinged with golden yellow ; rump and under parts, red ; wings and tail washed 

 with red ; greater wing-coverts, green. 



Female. — Olive-green above ; white, tinged with yellow, below ; wings and 

 tail washed with green. 



Accidental straggler from the south. 



One is recorded by Mr. E. P. Bicknell in the Elliot collection in 

 the American Museum, labeled "New Jersey," ^ and Professor .A. H. 

 Phillips took one at Princeton, July 6th, 1897.^ It is probable that 

 these may have been escaped cage birds. 



604 Spiza americana (Gmelin). 

 Dickcissel, Black-throated Bunting. 



Adult male. — Length, 5.75-6.50. Wing, 2.80-3.25. Above, grayish-brown, 

 streaked with black on the back ; rump and crown, gray ; a pale yellow line 

 over the eye ; lesser wing-coverts, bright cinnamon rufous ; under parts, yel- 

 low, fading into white on the abdomen and chin ; a black patch on the lower 

 throat. 



Adult female. — Similar, but paler ; whole throat, white ; no black patch. 



Young in first summer. — Clay colored, coarsely striped with black above ; 

 below, pale buff. 



^ Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, III., 1878. p. 132. 

 " Babson, Birds of Princeton, p. G6. 



