158 
N£STS AND EGGS OF 
As spring approaches, an anxious spirit of restlessness seizes the 
males, which sooner or later communicates itself to the opposite sex. This 
is manifest some time before setting out. But guided by a never-erring 
instinct, they curb their impatience, and thus bring it under restraint. 
Hence, like many kindred species, they are not very early comers. The 
middle of April — the season of sunshine and of showers — usually dates 
their first aj>pearance in the Gulf States, and from this time they are not 
slow in reaching their most northern homes. The lords, in their spruce 
and rich attires, generally lead their sober, unadorned companions by sev- 
eral days, and may be seen in low thickets along the borders of streams, 
among the rice plantations, or in the vicinity of the sad, cheerless sea. 
Fond of the lowlands, at such times, one would imagine that such situa- 
tions would have a depressing effect, and render them gloomy and de- 
spondent. But this is far from being the truth. Almost from the 
beginning of their arrival, they are endowed with the propensity to sing, 
even before their partners have come. Fi'om the summit of a wayside 
bush, a fence-rail, or from out the hedges of some suburban villa, their 
rich, mellifluent warblings may be heard to the infinite pleasure and joy 
of the weary pedestrian. These musical utterances resemble the notes of 
the common Indigo Bird, but lack their energy and power of sustentation. 
It is not now that their songs are heard to the best advantage, but when 
the season of mating occurs, a fortnight later. They are then in their 
happiest moods. The j^resence of the dear ones excites within them the 
])assiou of love, and calls forth the highest capabilities of their natures. 
In the days of Wilson these were recognized, and many a male-bird was 
captured and confined to a cage, by the French inhabitants of the lower 
parishes of Louisiana, not more for the splendor of his plumage, the 
docility of his manners, than for the sweetness of his song. Great num- 
bers were not only decoyed into traps, and other devices, to satisfy the 
growing desire for such pets at home, but hundreds were shi])ped to other 
countries. But it is only of late years that their introduction into our 
northern cities has been an object of pecuniary profit, and now almost 
