102 THE INDIGO BUNTING. 



No. 46. 



INDIGO BUNTING. 



A. O. U. No. 598. Cyanospiza cyanea (Linn.). 

 Synonym. — I ndi go-bird. 



Description. — Adult male: Indigo-blue, clear and intense upon head and 

 throat, passing insensibly into greenish or ccerulean blue elsewhere ; lores black ; 

 wings and tail blackish with some greenish blue edging; bill black above, lighter 

 below, with narrow black stripe along gonys. Adult female: Quite different; 

 warm gray-brown, most intense on back and crown, paler below and with ob- 

 scure smoky streakings on breast and sides — the lesser wing coverts with the 

 edges of primaries and rectrices exhibit a greenish tint. Young male : Like fe- 

 male but browner, soon showing traces of blue. Adult male in winter: Like 

 female but darker; blue only partially suppressed. Length 5.50-5.75 (139.7- 

 146.1) ; av. of eight Columbus males: wing 2.66 (67.7); tail 1.98 (50.3); bill 

 .41 (10.4). Females smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size; male indigo-blue; female warm brown, 

 unstreaked above. 



Nest, a compactly built cup of weeds, grasses, vegetable fibers, dead leaves, 

 etc., neatly lined with rootlets, grasses, and horse-hair; usually placed in crotch 

 of bush not far from ground. Bggs, 4, bluish or greenish white, unmarked ; 

 sometimes pure white. Av. size, .72 x .54 (18.3 x 13.7). 



General Range. — Eastern United States, west to Plains, north to about 

 latitude 47°. South in winter to Central America. 



Range in Ohio. — Common summer resident ; breeds throughout the state. 



TO a casual observer the male and female Indigo-birds appear to live 

 in separate spheres and to have very little in common. This is partly 

 because the female is such a plain-looking "brown bird" that it requires the 

 closest scrutiny to discover upon her shoulders faint traces of the royal 

 blue which marks her lord. Then, again, she is a most prosaic creature, 

 skulking about through th'ickets and briar patches or f,ussing with the chil- 

 dren, while her handsome mate spends his time in the tree-tops singing with 

 his little might and main. As a result, the Indigo-bird proper is one of the 

 most familiar features of wood's edge and wayside, while the Indigo-bird, 

 by courtesy — or shall we say by marriage? — is one of the least known of 

 Sparrows. 



The singing bird makes no attempt at concealment, but seeks the most 

 prominent position possible on telegraph wire or tree-top, and repeats at 

 frequent intervals a piercing but not very melodious warble, which rises and 

 falls in sharp cadences, and finishes with a hasty jumble of unfinished notes. 



