Species XVII. FRINGILLA CYANEA. 



INDIGO-BIRD. 



[Plate VI. Fig. 5.] . 



Tanagra cyanea, Linn. Syst. i., 315.— Le Ministre, Bupfon, it., %.— Indigo Bunt- 

 ing, Arct. Zool. II., No. 235.— Lath. Syn. iii., 205, 63.— Blue Linnet, Edw. 273. — 

 Linaria cyanea, Bartram, p. 290. 



This is another of those rich-plumaged tribes, that visit us in spring 

 from the regions of the south. It arrives in Pennsylvania on the second 

 week in May ; and disappears about the middle of September. It is 

 numerous in all the settled parts of the Middle and Eastern States ; in 

 the Carolinas and Georgia it is also abundant. Though Catesby says 

 that it is only found at a great distance from the sea ; yet round the 

 city of New York, and in many places along the shores of New Jersey, 

 I have met with them in plenty. I may also add, on the authority of 

 Mr. William Bartram, that " they inhabit the continent and sea-coast 

 islands, from Mexico to Nova Scotia, from the sea-coast west beyond 

 the Apalachian and Cherokee Mountains."* They are also known in 

 Mexico, where they probably winter. Its favorite haunts, while with 

 us, are about gardens, fields of deep clover, the borders of woods, and 

 road sides, where it is frequently seen perched on the fences. In its 

 manners it is extremely active and neat ; and a vigorous and pretty 

 good songster. It mounts to the highest tops of a large tree, and chants 

 for half an hour at a time. Its song is not one continued strain, but a 

 repetition of short notes, commencing loud and rapid, and falling by 

 almost imperceptible gradations for six or eight seconds, till they seem 

 hardly articulate, as if the little minstrel were quite exhausted ; and 

 after a pause of half a minute or less, commences again as before.. 

 Some of our birds sing only in spring, and then chiefly in the morning, 

 being comparatively mute during the heat of noon ; but the Indigo-bird 

 chants with as much animation under the meridian sun, in the month 

 of July, as in the month of May ; and continues his song, occasionally, 

 to the middle or end of August. Ilis usual note, when alarmed by an 

 approach to his nest, is a sharp chip, Uke that of striking two hard 

 pebbles smartly together. 



» Travels, p. 299. 



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