SPECIES 17. FRINGILLA 

 INDIGO BIRD. 



[Plate VI. Fig. 5.] 



Tanagra cyanea, LINN. Syst. i, 315. Le Ministre, BUFFON, iv, 96. 

 Indigo Bunting, Jlrct. ZooL n, JVo. 235. LATH. Syn. in, 

 205, 63. Blue Linnet, EDW. 273. Linaria cyanea, BARTRAM, 

 p. 290. PEALK'S Museum, JVo. 6002. 



THIS is another of those rich-plumaged tribes, that visit us in 

 spring from the regions of the south. It arrives in Pennsylva- 

 nia on the second week in May; and disappears about the mid- 

 dle of September. It is numerous in all the settled parts of the 

 middle and eastern states; in the Carolinas and Georgia it is also 

 abundant. Though Catesby says that it is only found at a great 

 distance from the sea; yet round the city of New York, and in 

 many places along the shores of New Jersey, I have met with 

 them in plenty. I may also add, on the authority of Mr. Wil- 

 liam Bartram, that " they inhabit the continent and sea-coast 

 islands, from Mexico to Nova Scotia, from the sea-coast west 

 beyond the Apalachian and Cherokee mountains/ 7 * They are 

 also known in Mexico, where they probably winter. Its favour- 

 ite haunts, while with us, are about gardens, fields of deep clo- 

 ver, the borders of woods, and road sides, where it is frequent- 

 ly seen perched on the fences. In its manners it is extremely 

 active and neat; and a vigorous and pretty good songster. It 

 mounts to the highest tops of a large tree, and chants for half 

 an hour at a time. Its song is not one continued strain, but a 

 repetition of short notes, commencing loud and rapid, and fall- 

 ing by almost imperceptible gradations for six or eight seconds, 

 till they seem hardly articulate, as if the little minstrel were 

 quite exhausted; and after a pause of half a minute or less, com- 

 * Travels, p. 299. 



