176 Bird- keep ing, 



or the cocks, will create a disturbance in the bird-room; 

 so it would be best to keep the pairs in separate cages. 

 The same may be said of their relative, 



The INDIGO BIRD (Cyanospiza or Fringilla cyanea), 

 another lovely bird, a native of North America. He 

 is one of the many birds called by the French bird- 

 catchers Ueveque, from his beautiful violet-blue plu- 

 mage. The top of the head is pure violet, shaded to 

 deep indigo blue on the back, with a greener tinge on 

 the lower part of the body. The quill-feathers are 

 brown edged with blue, the tail brown, and the beak 

 and legs lead-coloured. The female is brown : Mr. 

 Gosse calls her "drab-coloured ;" and the male bears 

 the same colour while moulting, and sometimes moults 

 twice in the year. He is about the size of a Linnet, 

 and his song somewhat resembles the song of that bird. 

 One, which was in my possession for a short time, used 

 to sing by candlelight: he was fed on canary and 

 white millet-seed : crushed hemp-seed is said to be 

 good for these birds occasionally, and they are fond 

 of flies and spiders. They are described by Mr. Gosse 

 as flitting about in an unfrequented part of the forests 

 in Alabama, the male and female both uttering the 

 call "chip" "described by Wilson as resembling the 

 sound made by two pebbles struck together." When 

 the male was alone one day he heard his simple song, 

 which he describes thus : " weasy-iveasy-weasy-che-che- 

 che-che? and watched him darting down to pick up an 



