230 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



(a). About 5^ inches long. $ , bright indigo-blue, darker 

 on the head, reflecting green in the light. Wings and tail, 

 darker, with much blackish. ( 9, above, a peculiar shade of 

 warm brown ; below, lighter, flaxen-tinted, sometimes streaky. 



(6). The nest is built in bushes or open shrubbery, not in- 

 frequently near a house. It is composed outwardly of dead 

 leaves, dry weed- stalks, grasses, etc. ; and is lined with finer 

 materials of the same sort, or with hairs ; often being quite 

 bulky. In Eastern Massachusetts four or five eggs are laid in 

 the last week of May, or later. They average '75X.55 of an 

 inch, and are white, often blue-tinged, and perhaps occasion- 

 ally marked. 



(c). The Indigo Birds are common in New England as sum- 

 mer-residents, occurring so far to the northward as Bethle- 

 hem among the White Mountains, though, according to Dr. 

 Brewer, locally distributed through Eastern Massachusetts. 

 They arrive at Boston in the second week of May, and, during 

 their residence here of about four months, frequent not only 

 the pastures, woodland of low growth, and the " scrub," but 

 shrubbery near houses, where they frequently build their nests, 

 one of which, says Dr. Brewer, was occupied by a pair for five 

 successive summers. They feed both upon insects and seeds, 

 but principally the latter, which they often search for on the 

 ground, even on the roadsides. They can fly quite rapidly, 

 and in summer, even when there is no necessity for such wan- 

 dering, often fly more than a mile at a considerable height, 

 moving from one pasture to another. They are rather shy, and 

 sometimes find this a convenient manner of escaping the an- 

 noyance of intrusion. In autumn they are gregarious, and 

 associate in small flocks with other finches. The females 

 are insignificant little birds, occupied, during their stay here, 

 chiefly with household cares, but the males, from their bright 

 plumage, glistening with the reflections of the varying lights, 

 and from their music, so persistently repeated, except near 



70 Mr. Wm. Couper says that they breed near Quebec, in Canada, where, how- 

 ever, they are not common. 



