26 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



reared and kept, the Indigo bird is seldom seen domesti- 

 cated. The few I have met with were taken in trap- 

 cages; and such of any species rarely sing equal to those 

 which have been reared by hand from the nest. There is 

 one singularity, which as it cannot be well represented in 

 the figure, may be mentioned here, viz. that in some cer- 

 tain lights his plumage appears of a rich sky-blue, and in 

 others of a vivid verdigrise green ;* so that the same bird, in 

 passing from one place to another before your eyes, seems 

 to undergo a total change of colour. When the angle of 

 incidence of the rays of light, reflected from his plumage, 

 is acute, the colour is green, when obtuse, blue. Such I 

 think I have observed to be uniformly the case, without beiug 

 optician enough to explain why it is so. From this, how- 

 ever, must be excepted the colour of the head, which being 

 of a very deep blue, is not affected by a change of position. 

 The nest of this bird is usually built in a low bush 

 among rank grass, grain or clover; suspended by two 

 twigs, one passing up each side; and is composed outward- 

 ly of flax, and lined with fine dry grass. I have also 

 known it to build in the hollow of an apple tree. The 

 eggs, generally five, are blue, with a blotch of purple at 

 the great end. 



The Indigo bird is five inches long, and seven inches in 

 extent; the whole body is of a rich sky blue, deepening 

 on the head to an ultramarine, with a tinge of purple; the 

 blue on the body, tail, and wings, varies in particular lights 

 to a light green, or verdigrise colour, similar to that on the 

 breast of a peacock; wings black, edged with light blue, 

 and becoming brownish towards the tips; lesser coverts 

 light blue; greater black, broadly skirted with the same 

 blue; tail black, exteriorly edged with blue; bill 

 black above, whitish below, somewhat larger than 

 Finches of the same size usually are, but less than 

 those of the genus Emberiza, with which Pennant has 

 classed it, though I think improperly, as the bird has 

 much more of the form and manners of the genus Frin- 

 gilla, where I must be permitted to place it; legs and feet 

 blackish brown. The female is of a light flaxen colour, 

 with the wings dusky black, and the cheeks, breast, and 

 whole lower parts a clay colour, with streaks of a darker 

 colour under the wings, and tinged in several places with 

 bluish. Towards fall the male while moulting becomes 

 nearly of the colour of the female, and in one which I kept 

 through the winter, the rich plumage did not return for 

 more than two months; though I doubt not had the bird 

 enjoyed his liberty and natural food under a warm sun, 

 this brownness would have been of shorter duration. The 

 usual food of this species is insects and various kinds of 

 seeds, — lb. 



* See figure in Plate ni. Vol. a 



DOG-WOOD. 

 CORJVUS FLORIDA. 



A Branch, with Leaves and Flowers of the natural size. Plate III. Vol. 3. 



Among the eight species of Dog-wood, which have 

 been observed in North America, this alone is entitled, by 

 its size, to be classed with the forest trees. It is the most 

 interesting, too, for the value of its wood, the properties 

 of its bark, and the beauty of its flowers. In the United 

 States at large, it is known by the name of Dog-wood, and 

 in Connecticut it is also called Box-wood. 



The Dog-wood is first seen in Massachusetts, between 

 the 42° and 43° of latitude, and in proceeding southward, 

 it is met with uninterruptedly throughout the eastern and 

 western states and the two Floridas, to the banks of the 

 Mississippi. Over this vast extent of country, it is one 

 of the most common trees, and it abounds particularly in 

 New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 

 wherever the soil is moist, gravelly, and uneven; farther 

 south, in the Carolinas, Georgia, and the Floridas, it is 

 found only in the borders of swamps, and never in pine 

 barrens, where the soil is too dry and sandy to sustain its 

 vegetation. In the most fertile regions of Kentucky, 

 and West Tennessee, it does not appear in the forest, 

 except where the soil is gravelly, and of middling quality. 

 The Dog-wood sometimes reaches thirty or thirty-five 

 feet in height, and nine or ten inches in diameter; but it 

 does not generally exceed the height of eighteen or 

 twenty feet, and the diameter of four or five inches. The 

 trunk is strong, and is covered with a blackish bark, 

 chapped into many small portions, which are often in the 

 shape of squares, more or less exact. The branches are 

 proportionably less numerous than on other trees, and are 

 regularly disposed nearly in the form of crosses. The 

 young twigs are observed to incline upwards in a semi- 

 circular direction. 



The leaves are opposite, about three inches in length, 

 oval, of a dark green above, and whitish beneath; the 

 upper surface is very distinctly sulcated. Towards the 

 close of summer, they are often marked with black spots, 

 and at the approach of winter they change to a dull red. 



In New-York and New-Jersey, the flowers are fully 

 blown about the 10th or ISth of May, while the leaves 

 are only beginning to unfold themselves. The flowers 

 are small, yellowish, and collected in bunches, which are 

 surrounded with a very large involuere, composed of 

 four white floral leaves, sometimes inclining to violet. 

 This fine involuere constitutes all the beauty of the flow- 

 ers, which are very numerous, and which, in their season, 



