312 SINGING BIRDS. 



confined to the cool and animating dawn of morning, but it 

 is renewed and still more vigorous during the noon- day heat 

 of summer. This lively strain seems composed of a repeti- 

 tion of short notes ; commencing loud and rapid, and then, 

 slowly falling, they descend almost to a whisper, succeeded by 

 a silent interval of about half a minute, when the song is again 

 continued as before. The most common of these vocal expres- 

 sions sounds like she tshe tshe — tshe tshee tshee — tshi tshe 

 tshe. The middle syllables are uttered lispingly, in a very 

 peculiar manner, and the three last gradually fall ; sometimes 

 the song is varied and shortened into tshea tshea tshea tshreh, 

 the last sound being sometimes doubled. This shorter song 

 is usually uttered at the time that the female is engaged in 

 the cares of incubation, or as the brood already appear, and 

 when too great a display of music might endanger the retiring 

 security of the family. From a young or imperfectly moulted 

 male, on the summit of a weeping-willow, I heard the following 

 singularly lively syllables, 'tie 'tie 'tie td lee, repeated at short 

 intervals. While thus prominently exposed to view, the little 

 airy minstrel is continually on the watch against any surprise, 

 and if he be steadily looked at or hearkened to with visible 

 attention, in the next instant he is off to seek out some securer 

 elevation. In the village of Cambridge I have seen one of 

 these azure, almost celestial musicians, regularly chant to the 

 inmates of a tall dwelling-house from the summit of the chim- 

 ney or the point of the forked lightning-rod. I have also 

 heard a Canary, within hearing, repeat and imitate the slowly 

 lisping trill of the Indigo Bird, whose warble indeed often 

 greatly resembles that of this species. The female, before 

 hatching her brood, is but seldom seen, and is then scarcely 

 distinguishable from a common Sparrow ; nor is she ever to be 

 observed beyond the humble bushes and weeds in which she 

 commonly resides. 



The nest of our bird is usually built in a low bush partly con- 

 cealed by rank grass or grain ; at times in the forks of a young 

 orchard tree lo or 12 feet from the ground. I have also seen 

 one suspended in a complicated manner in a trellised grape- 



