CHAPTER XL. 



September 25 October 1. 



THE INDIGO BUNTING. 



Order Passeres Suborder Oscines 



Family Fringillidse Genus Passerina 



Species Passerina cyanea 



Length 4.75 to 5.75 ; wing, 2.60 to 2.80; tail, 2.20 to 2.50. 

 Migration North, April ; south, September. 



"When I see 



High on the tip-top twig of a tree, 

 Something blue by the breezes stirred, 

 But so far up that the blue is blurred, 

 So far up that no green leaf flies 

 'Twixt its blue and the blue of the skies, 

 Then I know ere a note be heard, 

 That 'tis naught but the indigo bird." 



Bunting, formerly was the name given to several birds 

 of the order passeres, tribe conirostres, family fringillidae, and 

 sub-family emberizinse. They were characterized by an acute 

 conical bill, with a straight or nearly straight culmen, and with 

 lateral margins ; the interior of the upper mandible with a 

 palatic knob ; the wings moderate and somewhat pointed ; tarsi 

 about as long as the middle toe, and scaled ; hind toe robust 

 and longer than the inner ; claws generally curved. Our in- 

 digo bunting, known scientifically as emberiza cyanea, was 

 one of the birds by Pennant placed under that arrangement, 

 but under its present classification it is known scientifically as 

 passerina syanea. It yet continues to be a member of the 



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