FAMILY Fringlllldae. 



be valued less for its melody than for its incomparable 

 dancing tempo and its inimitable tenderness. If the 

 music were embodied in a form easily interpreted by the 

 piano, it would appear thus: 



Scherzdndo J. - If) 4- 

 con expression* 



Indigo Bunting xhe intensely blue Indigo Bunting, or In- 

 Cyanoapiza digo Q^ often appears a mere tiny black 

 L?55 inches s iln <> ue tte against the brilliant sky as he 

 May i2th is perched in his favorite commanding 



position on the topmost twig of the towering tree beside 

 the road. That is the place where it has been my cus- 

 tom to find him. But for a better view of his magnifi- 

 cent color we must wait for him to descend from his 

 high perch, or else, in some manner, we must endeavor 

 to gain a position between him and the sun so its rays 

 will illuminate his intense and lustrous plumage. Ex- 

 cepting his wings and tail which are black margined 

 with blue, his whole body is a deep Prussian blue of an 

 iridescent quality comparable only to that which we see 

 on the Peacock's neck. The color is deepest on the 

 head, and brightest on the back and neck; the cheeks 

 are blackish. The female is brown, streaked above, and 

 pale on the under parts fading to brown- white; wings 

 and tail brown faintly margined with blue. Nest usu- 

 ally placed near the ground in the Y of a bush or 

 shrub, and made up of dead leaves, grasses, plant fibres, 

 and bark, lined with horse-hair and other fine material. 

 Egg blue- white. The bird is common throughout the 

 eastern United States; it winters in Central America. 



The song of the Indigo Bunting is one of the most en- 

 livening and cheerful little lays which one may hear 

 136 



