226 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



family fringillidae. Wilson called it the indigo bird, and it is quite 

 commonly known by that name. 



The bill of the adult male indigo bunting above is black 

 and below whitish, with a dark stripe along the gonys ; iris of 

 the eye brown ; head, neck and throat ultramarine blue ; as his 

 name indicates, his general color is an indigo or cerulian blue, 

 changing to a bluish green in certain lights ; he is the bluest 

 of our blue birds ; wings black blue, edged with light blue and 

 becoming brownish toward the tips ; tail deep blue, tinged with 

 light green ; tarsus slender, without feathers, and brownish ; 

 toes of same color, long, with sharp claws. The female is 

 smaller than the male, and of an olive-brown color above, 

 sometimes tinged with greenish gray on the rump and upper 

 tail coverts ; beneath dull whitish, more or less washed or tinged 

 with olive-buffy on the chest. Sides and flank, wings and tail 

 darkest, sometimes with slight tinge of blue in outer webs and on 

 the shoulders. 



The indigo bunting is a migrant whose range extends from 

 Veragua north through eastern Mexico, Central America and 

 the United States, east of the Great Plains to Maine, Michigan, 

 Minnesota, Ontario and Nova Scotia. It comes north during 

 the last half of April and the first half of May, spends the sum- 

 mer with us, and returns to the South the latter part of August 

 and in September. As a rule the males precede the females in 

 the migration north. They breed throughout their United States 

 range. 



Mating begins soon after the arrival of the females and 

 nest building commences about the middle of May. The nest 

 usually is built near the ground, in a low bush or clump of 

 weeds. A pair of these birds nested for several years at Som- 

 erleaze. One year I found the nest in some low growing lilac 

 bushes and the next year in a clump of weeds nearby where 

 it was the first year. The nest is built of grass, bark and leaves 

 and lined with fine grass and hair, and is a very neat structure. 

 It is made by the female, who also attends to the duties of in- 

 cubation and the feeding of the young while in the nest. In 

 the nest are laid from three to five white eggs, tinged with 

 blue and occasionally slightly marked with reddish-brown 

 dots. Incubation lasts about two weeks and the young leave the 



