FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 411 



In walking among clumps of bushes in clearings or old pastures, 

 look sharp if a small brown bird flies before you, especially if she calls 

 cheep and twitches her tail nervously from side to side. Though she 

 be a sparrowy-looking bird, look well to her shoulders and tail. If you 

 discover a glint of blue and her cries call her mate, you will ever after 

 be a more trustworthy observer for his brilliant coat is unmistakable. 



Having made sure of your birds, watch them to their nest a com- 

 pactly made cup too cleverly hidden in the dense green thicket to be 

 easily discovered. The color of the eggs will again test your accuracy 

 of observation; in varying lights they look green, blue, and white. 



The female Indigo is so suspicious that it is not hard to be vexed 

 with her, but the primary virtues of an observer are conscientiousness 

 and patience; so take your hard cases as a means of grace. 



However distrustful the poor mother bird is, her mate's cheery song 

 makes up for it all. After most birds have stopped singing for the year, 

 his merry voice still gladdens the long August days. 



I well remember watching one Indigo-bird, who, day after day, used 

 to fly to the lowest limb of a high tree and sing his way up from branch 

 * to branch, bursting into jubilant song when he reached the topmost 

 bough. I watched him climb as high into the air as he could, when, 

 against a background of blue sky and rolling white clouds, the blessed 

 little songster broke out into the blithest round that ever bubbled up 

 from a glad heart. FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY. 



The VARIED BUNTING (600. Passerina versicolor versicolor), a species of 

 our Mexican border, has been once recorded from Michigan. 



601. Passerina ciris (Linn.). PAINTED BUNTING; NONPAREIL. Ad. d". 

 Head and sides of the neck indigo-blue ; back golden green ; rump dull red ; 

 underparts bright red; wings and tail tinged with dull red; greater wing- 

 coverts green. Im. cf . Resembles the 9 . Ad. 9 . Upperparts bright olive- 

 green ; underparts white, washed with greenish yellow ; wings and tail fuscous, 

 margined with olive-green. L., 5'25; W., 2'70; T., 2'15; B., '42. 



Range. SE. U. S. Breeds in Austroriparian fauna from s. Kans., cen. 

 Ark., n. Miss., and se. N. C. s. to se. N. M., Tex., and the Gulf coast; casual 

 in s. Ariz., and s. Ills.; winters in the Bahamas, Cuba, and from cen. Mex. to 

 Panama; occasional in winter in s. La. and cen. Fla. 



Nest, similar to that of P. cyanea, in bushes or low trees. Eggs, 3-4, 

 white or bluish white, with numerous chestnut or rufous-brown markings, 

 78 x '56. Date, Chatham Co., Ga., May 16. 



Mr. Maynard found this species in southern Florida in January, but 

 it does not migrate northward until about May 1. He writes that it 

 "is always shy and retiring, seldom appearing in the open, but remain- 

 ing in the dense, thorny undergrowth which covers all waste places in 

 Florida, especially if the soil has been cultivated. Whenever the birds 

 perceive an intruder they retire into the depths of these fastnesses, and 

 it requires considerable beating to drive them out, when they at once 

 dart into the nearest cover. The adult males are especially shy, and 

 seldom show themselves. Even while singing they remained concealed, 

 and, although we were thus furnished with a clew to their whereabouts, 

 it was with the utmost difficulty that we caught sight of the authors 



