THK INDIGO BUNTING. 53 



Linnet" is by far the most appropriate, in spite of the fact that it is 

 a Bunting. However, as many other birds have to ptit up with 

 inappropriate trivial names, I suppose the fact that there is no indigo 

 in the colouring of C. cyanea need not be considered: fortunately in 

 the case of the "Ultramarine Finch" which is of an indigo hue, we 

 are able to drop the misnomer. 



During the summer months the song of the Indigo Finch may be 

 heard at intervals during the day, and again at dusk, when all other 

 birds have settled down to sleep ; at this time, however, and in the 

 winter, he never completes the song, but only utters five notes, which 

 sound like chichi, dice, dice, clue, the last chec being prolonged : the full 

 song would add about ten more syllables, somewhat as follows: chichi, 

 chichi, chichi, dice, diidiccchi, all in a lower tone than the commencement. 



Ridgway says that " the common Indigo Bird of the Eastern States 

 is found in nearly uniform and tolerable abundance in various parts of 

 the United States, from the valley of the Missouri to the Atlantic, and 

 from Florida to New Brunswick. It is a summer visitor, but rare, in 

 Eastern Maine, but is common in the western part of the State, where 

 it arrives in the early part of May, and where it breeds. Mr. Allen 

 speaks of it as not very common in the vicinity of Springfield, Mass., 

 arriving there about the middle of May, and breeding in gardens, 

 orchards, and edges of woods, and making its nests in bushes. It leaves 

 there about the middle of September. 



" In manners it is active and sprightly, and its song is vigorous 

 and pleasant. It is considered a better singer than either C. ciris or 

 C. amcena. It usually stations itself, in singing, on some high position, 

 the top of a tree or of a chimney, where it chants its peculiar and 

 charming song for quite a space of time. Its song consists of a 

 repetition of short notes, at first loud and rapid, but gradually less 

 frequent, and becoming less and less distinct. It sings with equal 

 animation both in May and July, and its song may be occasionally 

 heard even in August, and not less during the noonday heat of 

 summer than in the cool of the morning. The most common of its 

 vocal expressions sounds like ts/ie-tshe-ts/ie,* repeated several times. 

 While the female is engaged in the cares of incubation, or just as the 

 brood has appeared, the song of the male is said to be much shortened. 

 In the village of Cambridge, Nuttall observed one of this species, 

 regularly chanting its song, from the point of a forked lightning rod, 

 on a very tall house. 



* This interested me when I first read it, as being confirmatory of the correctness of my own 

 rendering of the song of the Indigo Bunting. A.G.B. 



