2'JS 



USEFUL BIRDS. 



Indigo Bunting. Indigo Bird. 



Ciianospizd cyanea. 



Length. — About five and one-half inches. 



Adult Male. — Bright, lustrous indigo-blue, deepest on head, and often with a 



greenish tinge ; wings and tail dark brown, with blue marks and tints. 

 Adult Female and Young. — Upper parts light brown, sometimes faintly, but 



never j)rominently, streaked ; under parts brownish-gray ; breast and sides 



faintly streaked. 

 Xest. — In low bush. 

 -E.ggr.s. — White. 

 Season. — May to September. 



This briiilit l)lue Bunting is one of the most brilliant of 

 northern birds. The color of the male is so dark that at 

 a distance it seems almost black. The 

 male requires three 3'ears to attain full 

 phnnage. It frecjuents bushy pastures, 

 sprout lands, and old fruit gardens 

 grown up to weeds. In late August 

 and September it is seen in sweet-corn 



Fig. 129. — Indigo Bunt- ^ , r- i i 



ing, male, about oiie-baif patchcs or cornhelds. 



natural size. ^^^ soug is a rather rich and })lcas- 



ing refrain, with a metallic ring or jingle. A few notes 

 seem to exhaust its vocabular\' and its breath at the same 

 time, but it is soon ready to tr}^ again. Perseverance is its 

 unfailing virtue, for it sings, intermittently, all through the 

 long, hot summer daj-. Its alarm note is a sharp chip. 



It feeds more on the caterpillars that infest trees and 

 bushes than do most S})arrows, and takes many such larva^ to 

 its young. It is fond of grasshoppers, 

 and takes some insects from the garden. 

 It eats the birch plant louse with a\idity. 

 A few flies, mosquitoes, or gnats are 

 taken ; cankerwornis and other measur- 

 ing worms, the larvte of sexeral species of -pis. 130. — indigo Bunt- 

 butterflies, and the imagoes of nocturnal lug, female, 

 and Tincid moths, with small beetles of diflferent species, con- 

 stitute a portion of its insect food. The larger part of its food 

 consists of seeds, many of which are those of weeds. During 

 its short stay with us it is one of the few useful species seen 

 much about the garden, and is of some service in the orchard. 



