Blue and Bluish 



England and N.ew York migrate into Virginia and the Carolinas ; 

 the birds from the Middle States move down into the Gulf States 

 to pass the winter. It was there that countless numbers were 

 cut off by the severe winter of 1894-95, which was so severe in 

 that section. 



Indigo Bunting 



(Passerina cyanea) Finch family 



Called also: INDIGO BIRD 



Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. Smaller than the English sparrow, or 



the size of a canary. 

 Male — In certain lights rich blue, deepest on head. In another 



light the blue feathers show verdigris tints. Wings, tail, and 



lower back with brownish wash, most prominent in autumn 



plumage. Quills of wings and tail deep blue, margined with 



light. 

 Female — Plain sienna-brown above. Yellowish on breast and 



shading to white underneath, and indistinctly streaked. 



Wings and tail darkest, sometimes with slight tinge of blue 



in outer webs and on shoulders. 

 Range — North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Most 



common in eastern part of United States. Winters in 



Central America and Mexico. 

 Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. 



The "glowing indigo" of this tropical-looking visitor that 

 so delighted Thoreau in the Walden woods, often seems only the 

 more intense by comparison with the blue sky, against which it 

 stands out in relief as the bird perches singing in a tree-top. 

 What has this gaily dressed, dapper little cavalier in common 

 with his dingy sparrow cousins that haunt the ground and de- 

 light in dust-baths, leaving their feathers no whit more dingy 

 than they were before, and in temper, as in plumage, suggesting 

 more of earth than of heaven ? Apparently he has nothing, and 

 yet the small brown bird in the roadside thicket, which you have 

 misnamed a sparrow, not noticing the glint of blue in her shoul- 

 ders and tail, is his mate. Besides the structural resemblances, 

 which are, of course, the only ones considered by ornithologists 

 in classifying birds, the indigo buntings have several sparrow- 

 like traits. They feed upon the ground, mainly upon seeds of 

 grasses and herbs, with a few insects interspersed to give relish 



lOI 



