I04 



THE INDIGO BUNTING. 



emphatic that the inquisitor believes himself "hot" when he may be a dozen 

 yards away. As a result the nest is rather hard to find; and the number found 



in a season's nesting will be 

 out of all proportion to the 

 aJjundance of the birds. 



The nests, while usually 

 bulkv, are models of neatness 

 and strength. Dead leaves 

 and grasses make up its 

 mass, and there is a copious 

 lining- of fine grasses with 

 an admixture of horse-hair. 

 Often two, and sometimes 

 three, liroods are raised in a 

 season. 



The eggs are of a beauti- 

 ful pale blue, warmed, while 

 fresh, bv the color of the 

 contents. Of their occasion- 

 al variation Dr. Coues says : 

 "The egg is ^■ariously de- 

 scril)ed as pure white, plain 

 blue, or bluish speckled with 

 reddish. The fact appears to 

 be, not that these statements 

 are conflicting or an^f of 

 them erroneous, but that dif- 

 ferent eggs vary accord- 

 ingly. It seems to be the general rule with normally bluish eggs that thev rang? 

 in shade from quite blue to white, and are occasionally speckled.'' 



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