54 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



" The Indigo Bird usually builds its nest in the centre of a low 

 thick bush. The first nest I ever met with was built in a thick sumach 

 that had grown up at the bottom of a deep excavation, some fifteen 

 feet below the surface, and but two feet above the base of the shrub. 

 This same nest was occupied five successive summers. It was almost 

 wholly built of matting that the birds had evidently taken from the 

 ties of our grape-vines. Each year the nest was repaired with the 

 same material. Once only they had two broods in one season. The 

 second brood was not hatched out until September, and the family was 

 not ready to migrate until after nearly all its kindred had assembled 

 and gone. This nest, though principally made of bare matting, was 

 very neatly and thoroughly lined with hair. Other nests are made of 

 coarse grasses and sedges, and all are iisually lined in a similar manner." 



"Audubon and Wilson describe the eggs as blue, with purplish 

 spots at the larger end. All that I have ever seen were white, with a 

 slight tinge of greenish or blue, and unspotted. I have never been 

 able to meet with a spotted egg of this bird, the identification of which 

 was beyond suspicion. They are of a rounded oval shape, one side is 

 only a little more pointed than the other. They measure '75(3) of an 

 inch in length by '58 (nearly f) in breadth." 



Dr. Russ makes the following notes respecting this Bunting: 

 "Song a joyous full warbling, similar to those of the European Wren 

 and Hedge- Sparrow. If undisturbed nests without difficulty. Nest in 

 a thick bush, near the floor, of grass stems and the like. Laying five 

 eggs, blue, with dark dotting. Young Plutnage like that of the hen, 

 but the wing and tail feathers with blue-grey margins; under-side 

 streaked with bluish. Little beak grey-brown with yellow base; feet 

 bright horn-brown." 



"Has several broods, one after the other. The female rarely to be 

 had; males on the contrary yearly imported in man}' hundreds. A 

 migratory bird; in Autumn and Spring he is restless and occasions 

 considerable disturbance in the Bird- room or aviary; at other times 

 calm and peaceable, only a bully at breeding time. With proper care 

 long-lived and regular in its change of colour." 



Mr. Wiener says: "With proper treatment the bird is well able 

 to live all the year round in an English open-air aviary, displaying 

 only a little restlessness at the period of migration. Cross-breeding 

 with Canaries has been attempted, but with very little success. In the 

 very rare cases where young cross-breeds resulted their colours were 

 disappointing." 



I have twice tried the Indigo Finch in aviaries open to the air : 



