282 FRINGILLID^ : FINCHES. 



the female was busily engaged in feeding with small 

 grasshoppers. They were quite tame and unsuspicious, 

 and permitted a very close approach. We saw two 

 other males, evidently in the neighborhood of their re- 

 spective families. We saw enough to satisfy us of its 

 actual presence in considerable numbers." 



A still later record, the last I shall cite, is furnished 

 by Mr. R. Deane to the same Bulletin for 1879, p. 

 122. Says this gentleman: "Through the kindness 

 of Mr. N. C. Hammond, I am enabled to record an 

 instance of its breeding in Hyde Park, Mass., where 

 he collected a nest containing four eggs, about August 

 I, 1878. The nest was placed on the ground, in the 

 middle of a large open field, and from the lateness of 

 this date would indicate that it must have been a sec- 

 ond brood." 



INDIGO-BIRD. 

 Passerina cyanea (Z.) Gr. 



Chars. Male, adult : Indigo blue, intense and constant on the head, 

 more greenish in some lights on other parts ; feathers at base of 

 bill black ; wings and tail dusky, glossed with the general color. 

 Bill blackish above, pale below, with a black stripe on the gonys. 

 Young males are less purely blue, the feathers of the under parts 

 skirted with white, etc. At an early age they resemble the female. 

 Female entirely different : Above, plain warm brown ; below, paler 

 or whitish-brown, obsoletely streaked on the breast and sides ; 

 besides this, there is little variegation of the plumage. Bill as in 

 the male. Length about 5.50 ; extent, 7.25 ; wing, 2.75 ; tail, 2.50. 



The Indigo-bird is a common summer resident in 

 New England, especially in southerly portions, be- 

 coming less numerous the farther north it proceeds, 



