INDIGO BIKD. 347 



In this vicinity they are rare during the breeding season ; I have but 

 once discovered their nest. This was placed in a low thorn-tree in a 

 thicket on the edge of a sycamore grove on the bank of the Olentangy 

 River. I was attracted to the locality by the loud, clear and flute-like 

 voice of the male, who, perched high in the branches of the tall trees, 

 sang by the hour his incomparable notes. Audubon states that he found 

 their nest and eggs in the vicinity of Cincinnati. 



The nest is placed in a low tree on the edge of woods or on the bank of 

 a stream. It is composed of small twigs, vegetable fibres, and grass ; the 

 eggs vary from light green to greenish-white, thickly spotted with red- 

 dish-brown. They measure about 1 00 by .75. The males assist in, if they 

 do not largely perform, the duties of incubation. 



In the fall the males migrate in small companies of ten or twelve, and 

 from the fact that all which I have seen resemble the females, except 

 in having the under wing-coverts and spot on the breast carmine, I sus- 

 pect that old males lose their black, and become streaked in the fall. (?) 



Genus CYANOSPIZA. Baird. 



Bill deep at base, compressed ; the commissure witli an obtnse shallow lobe in the 

 middle. Tarsns about equal to middle toe ; outer toe barely longer than inner, its claw 

 falling short of base of middle claw. Claws much curved, acnte. Wings long and 

 pointed, longer than the nearly evea tail, and reaching to its middle. 



Cyanospiz.a. cyanea (L.) Bp. 



Xndi^o XSird.. 



JPnngilla cyanea, Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 164, 183. — Read, Proo. Phila. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 335. 



GoNiAPHEA c^RULEA (L.) Sclater. 



i 



Blue G-rosbeali. 



Guiraea ccerulea, Wheaton, Ohio Agric. Eep. for 1360, 1861, 379 ; Reprint, 21 (probable), 

 — Langdon, Revised List, Journ. Gin. Soo. Nat. Hist., i, 1379, 176; Reprint, 22 

 (probable). 



Goniaphea cwrulea, Wheaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agrio. Rep. for 1874, 1875, 566; 

 Reprint, G. — Langdon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 9. 



Loxia cwrulea, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 306. 

 Guiraea ccerulea, Swainson, Philos. Mag., i, 1827, 438. 

 Goniaphea ccerulea, Sclatee, P. Z. S., 1856, 301. 



Habitat, United States southerly, from Atlantic to Pacific. In the East, north to the 

 Middle States regularly ; to Connecticut Valley occasionally ; to Maine casually. In the 

 interior north to the Platte. In the West, north through California. South to Mexico 

 and Central America. Cuba. 



Given in my list of 1875 on what I now consider insufficient authority. 



