248 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



have reddish-brown tips. Female brownish-yellow, below rather paler than above, 

 wings and tail dusky-brown, with, sometimes, faint traces of blue ; two brownish- 

 wing bands. Young similar to female. Length about 7 5 ; extent about 11| ; female 

 smaller. 



Habitat. Southern half of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 south into Mexico. 



The Blue Grosbeak is a very rare and occasional summer resident in 

 southern counties of Pennsylvania. About five years ago, May 10, I 

 captured one of these birds in the lower part of Chester county ; it is 

 the only one of the species I have ever seen in the state. The Messrs. 

 Baird writing, in 1844, of the Blue Grosbeak, give it as a native and say : 

 "A few seen each year in the same place" (in the vicinity of Carlisle, 

 Cumberland county). During recent years, however, according to the 

 report of Mr. T. L. Neff, of Carlisle, this species has not been observed. 

 Dr. Turnbull (1869) includes it in his list of rare and irregular summer 

 visitants in the southern counties of Pennsylvania. Dr. Spencer Trotter * 

 mentions the capture of stragglers in Philadelphia and Delaware 

 counties. The late Judge Libhart recorded it as a " very rare " visitor 

 in Lancaster county, where Prof. H. J. Eoddy informs me it has in 

 recent years been found as a casual summer resident. In the summer 

 of 1884 Mr. W. H. Buller captured a specimen near his home at Marietta. 

 Mr. J. F. Kocher writes me that some few years ago he found a nest with 

 eggs of this species in Lehigh county. Dr. John W. Detwiller, who has 

 devoted careful study to our feathered fauna for the past twenty-five 

 years, shot a Blue Grosbeak in the spring near Easton, Northampton 

 county ; it is the only one he ever met with in the state. Messrs. George 

 Miller and Casper Loucks have observed stragglers of this species in 

 York county. " Nest, in bushes, vines or other shrubbery, sometimes a 

 low tree, of grasses and rootlets ; eggs, four to five, averaging .90 by .65, 

 palest-bluish, normally unspotted ; quite like those of the Indigo-bird, 

 but larger." Coues. 



GENUS PASSERINA VIEILLOT. 

 Passerina cyanea (LiNN.). 



Indigo Bunting; Green-bird; Indigo-bird. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 36). 



Length about 5g inches ; extent about 8g inches. 



Habitat. Eastern United States, south in winter to Veragua. 



Very abundant from May to October. When they first come, and also 

 in the autumn before leaving, these birds are sometimes seen in small 

 flocks. The males arrive a few days before the females, and in small 

 parties often visit our gardens and orchards, where, in the spring, they 

 are frequently to be observed gleaning insects, or devouring the apple- 



* Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club. IV. 1879, p. 235. , 



