LAND BIRDS. 537 
in a high key, then repeated in a slightly lower key, growing feebler as the 
song ends. It resembles the syllables swee-swee-swee, swee-swee (slightly 
lower), sweet-sweet-sweet, swe-swe (slightly lower), swee, swee, swee.” 
This does not suggest the song satisfactorily to the writer, but it is a difficult 
song to describe. It is not unlike part of the song of the Goldfinch, which 
in turn suggests some canary songs, but that of the Indigo Bird has a ringing, 
rollicking quality which is entirely its own. When heard at a distance 
it might be mistaken for that of several other songsters, but when close at 
hand it is not to be confounded with anything else. 
The food consists mainly of seeds and berries, but a liberal quantity of 
insects is added and those often of the most injurious kind. In his study 
of an orchard infested with canker-worms, Prof. $. A. Forbes, of Champaign, 
Ill., found that the Indigo Birds were eating the canker-worms more freely 
than was their usual habit, not less than 78 percent of the food in some 
stomachs consisting of these span-worms, and only 3 percent of seeds. 
He also found that they ate freely caterpillars, click-beetles, snout-beetles, 
chafers, and bugs of various kinds. Since the bird does absolutely no harm 
to the farmer or horticulturist, and feeds so largely upon injurious insects, 
it must be regarded as one of our most valuable species and should be 
carefully protected. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION, 
Adult male: Entire plumage, except wings and tail, rich deep blue, darkest (ultramarine) 
on head, neck and breast, lighter (sky-blue or turquoise-blue) on back and sides; wings and 
tail mainly blackish, but with outer webs so glossed with blue that when folded they show 
no other color; bill blackish above, lighter below, with a sharp black streak along the keel 
of the lower mandible; iris brown. Spring males often show whitish patches on the under 
parts, or buffy feathers scattered here and there, a proof that many individuals do not 
attain full plumage until more than a year old. Adult female: Upper parts nearly uniform 
brown, with faint indications of darker streaks, or none; under parts buffy brown, the throat 
and belly lightest (sometimes almost white), the breast and sides darkest and more or less 
distinctly streaked with dusky; wings and tail grayish brown, with little trace of light wing- 
bars, but the tertiaries usually edged with the light brown of the back; primaries and tail- 
feathers usually faintly glossed with blue on their outer webs. Young birds resemble the 
adult female, but are somewhat darker, more thickly streaked below, and have no bluish 
edgings on wing and tail-feathers. : 
Length 4.75 to 5.75 inches; wing 2.60 to 2.80; tail 2.20 to 2.50. 
Note.—For an account of the Varied Bunting or Western Nonpariel, doubtfully accredited 
to Michigan, see Appendix. 
243. Black-throated Bunting. Spiza americana (Gmel.). (604) 
Synonyms: Dickcissel, Little Meadowlark.—mberiza americana, Gmelin, 1789, Wils., 
Nutt., Aud.—Euspiza americana, Bonap., 1838, and most American writers until 1880. 
—Spiza americana, Ridgw., 1880, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886, and all recent authors. 
Male a little larger than an English Sparrow, with white chin, black throat, 
yellow breast, and chestnut shoulders. The female is smaller and Jacks 
the black throat patch and brown shoulders. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States to the Rocky Mountains, breeding 
from Texas north to Massachusetts, New York, southern Ontario, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota and North Dakota; south in winter through Central America 
to northern South America; southwest in migration to Arizona. Now rare 
or entirely absent east of the Alleghanies. ; ; 
The Black-throated Bunting is one of our most interesting birds, not alone 
on account of its beauty, but because it varies greatly in numbers in different 
