124 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



indistinctly streaked with dull buff. The cock when out 

 of colour, or when immature, is very like the hen, the 

 beak is brownish -black, bluish beneath, iris of eye 

 brown, legs dark brown. 



The Indigo Bunting comes from the Eastern United 

 States, whence its range extends southwards to Guate- 

 mala, Panama, etc. This species breeds in gardens, 

 orchards, or on the outskirts of woods, building its 

 nest in bushes ; in the autumn, however, it is said to 

 frequent the open country in flocks, its favourite places 

 for singing from are the top of a tree or chimney. The 

 nest is constructed of coarse grasses and sedges, and is 

 thickly lined with hair, the eggs are bluish or greenish 

 white, sometimes sparingly spotted with red-brown at 

 the larger end. This bird is of about the size of a 

 Linnet, being 5 in. in length, and, as it is tolerably 

 peaceable, it may safely be associated with these or any 

 birds of about the same size ; indeed I do not believe it 

 would injure even the smallest Waxbills. I have at 

 various times had several so-called " Indigo Finches," 

 and have found them not only a great ornament to 

 an aviary, but rather bright singers during the summer 

 months ; the song is always the same, two rapid notes 

 followed by three long-drawn ones and followed by a 

 number of short notes ; the commencement, which is 

 also frequently sung after dark, may be expressed as 

 " chichi, chee, chee, chee," the last note being more 

 sustained than the others, and the short notes which 

 follow being such as a Canary might produce. 



It used to be asserted by the late Dr. Greene and 

 others that it was utterly impossible to produce hybrids 

 between the Indigo Bunting and the Canary, it 'being 

 supposed that Buntings and other largely insectivorous 

 Finches did not feed their young from the crop ; this 

 of course was a mistake. Some years ago Mr. W. E. D. 

 Scott, then of Princetown University. U.S.A., told me 

 that he had bred hybrids between this species and the 

 common Canary, and that they were green birds ; this 

 confirmed the late Mr. Wiener's statement in Cassell's 

 " Cage-bdrds," that ''where young cross-breeds resulted, 

 their colours were disappointing." 



I was not successful in obtaining the cross myself> 

 but there is not any reason, beyond the excitable and 

 restless nature of the Indigo Bunting, why it should not 

 be as readily obtainable as a Greenfinch-Canary hybrid. 

 In each case birds of different sub-families are paired. 

 The best chance for a successful result would be to turn 

 a male Indigo Finch and a female Canary into a spacious 

 garden aviary planted with shrubs, and put no other 

 birds with them. In a large flight cage the Indigo 

 Bunting will not let the Canary alone for ten minutes 

 from morn to night, and when she builds he pulls her 

 nest over the eggs, so that they stand no chance of 

 incubation. 



In 1896 I turned out this Bunting with a hen Canary 

 into an outdoor aviary, but here (as previously in a 

 flight-cage) the Bunting pulled out her nest as fast as 

 she built it ; eventually I turned in a cock Canary with 

 them and ehe immediately deserted her foreign husband 

 and reared two pure Canaries. Previous pairing with 

 the Bunting did not affect the young birds. Mr. Farrar 

 bred the Indigo Bunting in 1900. 



LAZULI BUNTING (Cyanospiza amcena). 



Above blue with a greenish tinge, the mantle, upper 

 back and lesser-coverts considerably darker ; median 

 coverts white ; greater coverts very' dark, blue on the 

 edges and tipped Avith white ; remainder of wing and 

 tail-feathers blackish, with blue outer margins ; upper 

 tail-coverts rather duller blue than lower back and 

 rump, the latter being bright cobalt blue ; crown of 

 head also bright blue; loral region black, remainder of 



sides of head, throat and sides of breast bright blue; 

 upper breast pale brownish-chestnut, separated from the 

 blue throat by an ill-defined white crescent ; rest of 

 under surface white ; beak black, bluish below ; feet 

 black, irides brown. Female above dull brown, greyer 

 behind ; lesser coverts and margins of flights and tail- 

 feathers dull bluish; crown somewhat bluish, the baso 

 of forehead, lores and eyelid whitish ; ear-coverts pale 

 brown; remainder of sides of head, throat, breast, sides, 

 and flanks pale huffish ; remainder of body below 

 whitish ; flights below dusky, ashy along inner web. 

 Habitat, High Central Plains of X. America to the 

 Pacific, ranging into Mexico. 



J. G. Cooper (" Ornith. Calif.," Vol. I., p. 234) says : 

 " During the summer there is scarcely a thicket or grove 

 in the more open portions of the State, uninhabited by 

 one or more pairs of this beautiful species. The male is 

 not very timid, and frequently sings his lively notes 

 from the top of some bush or tree, continuing musical 

 throughout summer, and in all weathers. The song is 

 unvaried, and rather monotonous, closely resembling 

 that of the Eastern C. cyanea. 



" Their nest is built in a bush not more than three or 

 four feet above the ground, formed of fibrous roots, 

 strips of bark and grass, with a lining of plant-down or 

 hairs, and securely bound to the surrounding branches. 

 The eggs are four or five, white, faintly tinged with 

 blue. At Santa Barbara I found them freshly laid on 

 May 6th. 



" These birds are never very gregarious, though the 

 males arrive in the spring in considerable flocks, travel- 

 ling at night, and several days before the females. The 

 latter are at all times very shy, and so plain in plumage 

 that they are very difficult to obtain, unless on the nest. 



" They arrived at Santa Cruz in 1866 about April 12th, 

 ten days earlier than observed at San Diego in 1862. 

 A nest found May 7th, in a low bush close by the public 

 road, and about three feet from the ground, was built 

 very strongly, supported by a triple fork of the branch 

 composed of grass blades firmly interwoven, the insida 

 lined with much horsehair and cobwebs. The outside 

 measured three inches in height, three and three-fourths 

 in width ; inside it was two wide, one and three-fourths- 

 deep. The three eggs, partly hatched, were pale bluish- 

 white, and measured 0.75 by 0.56 inch." 



Formerly this was a common cage-bird in the Western 

 States of N. America; but as Dr. Russ tells us, it was 

 extremely rarely imported into Europe, and probably 

 there will be less likelihood of our meeting with it in 

 the trade now than formerly. 



VARIED NONPAREIL (Cyanospiza versicolor). 



General colour above dull purplish red, the scapulars 

 bluer ; a narrow frontal line and the lores black ; fore- 

 head and front of crown, region above ear-coverts, back 

 of nape, rump and upper tail-coverts pale lilacine or 

 mauve-bluish ; the cheeks, ear-coverts and lesser wing- 

 coverts deeper lilacine blue ; lower eyelid and back of 

 upper eyelid, back of crown and upper part of nape 

 scarlet; median wing-coverts purplish red, black at 

 base ; greater coverts blackish with purplish red edges 

 and tips ; remaining wing and tail feathers blackish, 

 edged externally with dull blue ; the inner secondaries 

 suffused with purplish red ; chin black ; throat and 

 breast purplish maroon, the throat often redder; 

 remainder of under surface deep purplish lavender, 

 greyer on the flanks ; wings below dusky with dull 

 greyish and purplish edges ; tail-feathers blackish with 

 dull blue edges; beak blackish above pal-er below 

 (possibly greyish in life) ; feet Wack ; irides probably 

 brown. Female above mouse-brown, greyer on rump 

 and upper tail-coverts ; middle and greater wing- 

 coverts with paler edges and tips ; flights edged witli 



