NOPE—NULLIPENNES 645 
Louisiana, where it is especially the Pape of the French-speaking 
inhabitants (see BISHOP-BIRD, page 40) it is said to be very 
abundant; and on its appearance in spring advantage is, or 
was, taken of the pugnacious disposition of the males (which so 
often accompanies a brilliant sexually-distinct plumage) to capture 
them alive in great numbers by means of the stuffed skin of one so 
placed in connexion with a cage-trap that they instantly fall into 
the latter on attacking what they conceive to be a rival. In this 
way many thousands are said to have been taken formerly. The 
prisoner usually reconciles himself to his fate, and in a few days 
will utter his sprightly though not very powerful song; and, if 
provided with a mate and proper accommodation, will breed and 
rear a family in confinement. Belonging to the same genus as the 
Nonpareil is the INDIGO-BIRD, Cyanospiza cyanea, which, as a summer 
visitant, is widely diffused from the Missouri to the Atlantic, and 
extends into the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick, being 
everywhere regarded with favour. Though wanting most of the 
bright hues of its congener, the Indigo-bird has yet much beauty, 
the adult cock being nearly. all over of a deep blue, changing, 
according to the light, to green. The hen is brown above and 
ochreous-white beneath. This species is represented in the western 
part of the continent by the Lazuli-Finch, C. amena, the male of 
which has the upper parts greenish-blue, the wings barred with 
white, a pectoral band of light chestnut extending to the flanks on 
each side, and the lower parts white. Of the three remaining 
species of the genus, C. versicolor shews in the male a plumage 
beautifully varied with brownish-red, violet, and blue ; C. leclanchert 
is bluish-green above and yellow beneath, with an orange breast ; 
while C. rositx, though quite distinct, comes nearest in coloration to 
C. ciris. These three have a more southern range than the other 
three; but the first of them is believed occasionally to cross the 
Mexican frontier into the United States. None of the species of 
Cyanospiza are thought to occur further south than the isthmus of 
Panama; but the wonderful Ciridops anna of Hawaii (Wilson and 
Evans, Birds of the Sandwich Islands) is possibly allied to this genus. 
NOPE, a name of the BULLFINCH, said to be an old corruption 
of ALP or some other form of that word (see page 10) which has taken 
on an initial n borrowed from the indefinite article an.! 
NORFOLK PLOVER, a needless book-name for the Stone- 
CURLEW (see page 129), apparently invented by Pennant in 1766. 
1 Like @ newt for ‘‘an ewt” (or eft), a nickname for ‘‘an ekename,” a noke 
for ‘San oak,” and several other words (cf. Skeat, Htymol. Dict. sub litt. N) ; 
but the only case among English birds’ names where the converse process, or loss 
of a real initial n, has happened as in adder for ‘‘nadder,” auger for “‘ nauger,” 
seems to be that of eyas for ‘‘ N1As.” 
