LXXII 



INDIGO BUNTING 

 598. Passerina cyanae 



The Indigo Bunting is one of pur migratory birds, 

 arriving about May first and returning south in October. 

 It is about five and one-half inches long and of an indigo 

 color on head and neck, with a greenish tinge on the back 

 and belly. 



Buntings are rather abundant in thickets bordering 

 roadsides and open glades, where they may be seen and 

 heard on hot June and July days. Their song is very 

 much like that of the American Goldfinch. The nest is 

 a substantial one, built in thickets and vines near the 

 ground. Four to five bluish-white eggs are laid in June 

 and July. (Fig. 108.) 



Late one afternoon in July, while bird-nest hunting 

 for photographic purposes, I saw Slacker, the Cowbird, 

 come up on a low limb from the weeds near a path in a 

 ravine. Her every expression was one of the sneak that 

 she is ; her very movements were those of a traitor and a 

 coward. I was satisfied that she had been in mischief, 

 and that there was in that vicinity some small bird 's nest 

 which she had been despoiling with one of her eggs. 



Within two feet of the ground, in a bush, was the 

 nest of an Indigo Bunting, containing three young Bunt- 

 ings, and right in their midst was the egg of a Cowbird. 

 She was too late this time. It was plain that the egg had 

 just been laid and it is the only instance where I have 

 personally known a Cowbird to lay her egg in a nest con- 

 taining young birds almost ready to leave the nest. I 

 removed the egg and examined it carefully and found it 

 perfectly fresh. 



I made a photograph of the nest, the young birds 

 and the egg, just as I found them. (Fig. 109.) I kept 

 tab on the nest thereafter and photographed one of the 

 young birds after it was able to fly. 



194 



