INDIGO-BIRD. 127 



Notwithstanding the beauty of his plumage, the vivacity with which 

 he sings, and the ease with which he can be reared and kept, the Indigo- 

 bird is seldom seen domesticated. The few I have met with were taken 

 in trap-cages ; and such of any species rarely sing equal to those which 

 have been reared by hand from the nest. There is one singularity 

 which, as it cannot be well represented in the figure, may be men- 

 tioned here, viz., that in some certain lights his plumage appears of a 

 rich sky-blue, and in others of a vivid verdigris green ; so that the 

 same bird, in passing from one place to another before your eyes, 

 seems to undergo a total change of color. When the angle of incidence 

 of the rays of light, reflected from his plumage, is acute, the color is 

 green, when obtuse, blue. Such I think I have observed to be uniformly 

 the case, without being optician enough to explain why it is so. From 

 this, however, must be excepted the color of the head, which being of a 

 very deep blue, is not affected by a change of position. 



The nest of this bird is usually built in a low bush, among rank grass, 

 grain or clover ; suspended by two twigs, one passing up each side ; 

 and is composed outwardly of flax, and lined with fine dry grass. I 

 have also known it to build in the hollow of an apple tree. The eggs, 

 generally five, are blue, with a blotch of purple at the great end. 



The Indigo-bird is five inches long, and seven inches in extent ; the 

 whole body is of a rich sky-blue, deepening on the head to an ultra- 

 marine, with a tinge of purple ; the blue on the body, tail, and wings, 

 varies in particular lights to a light green, or verdigris color, similar to 

 that on the breast of a peacock ; wings black, edged with light blue, and 

 becoming brownish towards the tips ; lesser coverts light blue ; greater 

 black, broadly skirted with the same blue ; tail black, exteriorly edged 

 with blue ; bill black above, whitish below, somewhat larger in proportion 

 than Finches of the same size usually are, but less than those of the genus 

 Emleriza, with which Pennant has classed it, though I think improperly, 

 as the bird has much more of the form and manners of the genus Frin- 

 gilla, where I must be permitted to place it ; legs and feet blackish 

 brown. The female is of a light flaxen color, with the wings dusky 

 black, and the cheeks, breast, and whole lower parts a clay color, with 

 streaks of a darker color under the wings, and tinged in several places 

 with bluish. Towards fall the male while moulting becomes nearly of 

 the color of the female, and in one which I kept through the winter, the 

 rich plumage did not return for more than two months ; though I doubt 

 not had the bird enjoyed his liberty and natural food under a warm sun 

 this brownness would have been of shorter duration. The usual food 

 of this species is insects and various kinds of seeds. 



