102 THE INDIGO BUNTING. 



No. 46. 



INDIGO BUNTING. 



A. O. U. No. 598. Cyanospiza cyanea (Linn.). 



Synonym. INDIGO-BIRD. 



Description. Adult male : Indigo-blue, clear and intense upon head and 

 throat, passing insensibly into greenish or ccerulean blue elsewhere ; lores black ; 

 wings and tail blackish with some greenish blue edging; bill black above, lighter 

 below, with narrow black stripe along gonys. Adult female : Quite different ; 

 warm gray-brown, most intense on back and crown, paler below and with ob- 

 scure smoky streakings on breast and sides the lesser wing coverts with the 

 edges of primaries and rectrices exhibit a greenish tint. Young male : Like fe- 

 male but browner, soon showing traces of blue. Adult male in winter: Like 

 female but darker; blue only partially suppressed. Length 5.50-5.75 (139.7- 

 146.1); av. of eight Columbus males: wing 2.66 (67.7); tail 1.98 (50.3); bill 

 .41 (10.4). Females smaller. 



Recognition Marks. Warbler size; male indigo-blue; female warm brown, 

 unstreaked above. 



Nest, a compactly built cup of weeds, grasses, vegetable fibers, dead leaves, 

 etc., neatly lined with rootlets, grasses, and horse-hair; usually placed in crotch 

 of bush not far from ground. Eggs, 4, bluish or greenish white, unmarked ; 

 sometimes pure white. Av. size, .72 x .54 (18.3 x 13.7). 



General Range. Eastern United States, west to Plains, north to about 

 latitude 47. South in winter to Central America. 



Range in Ohio. Common summer resident ; breeds throughout the state. 



TO a casual observer the male and female Indigo-birds appear to live 

 in separate spheres and to have very little in common. This is partly 

 because the female is such a plain-looking "brown bird" that it requires the 

 closest scrutiny to discover upon her shoulders faint traces of the royal 

 blue which marks her lord. Then, again, she is a most prosaic creature, 

 skulking about through thickets and briar patches or fussing with the chil- 

 dren, while her handsome mate spends his time in the tree-tops singing with 

 his little might and main. As a result, the Indigo-bird proper is one of the 

 most familiar features of wood's edge and wayside, while the Indigo-bird, 

 by courtesy or shall we say by marriage? is one of the least known of 

 Sparrows. 



The singing bird makes no attempt at concealment, but seeks the most 

 prominent position possible on telegraph wire or tree-top, and repeats at 

 frequent intervals a piercing but not very melodious warble, which rises and 

 falls in sharp cadences, and finishes with a hasty jumble of unfinished notes. 



