INDIGO BIRD. 67 
in the Carolinas ana Georgia it is also abundant. Though Catesby 
says that it is only found at a great distance from the sea, yet round 
the city of New York, and in many places along the shores of New 
Jersey, I have met with them in plenty. I may also add, on the 
authority of Mr. William Bartram, that “they inhabit the continent and 
sea-coast islands, from Mexico to Nova Scotia, from the sea-coast 
west beyond the Apalachian and Cherokee mountains.”* They are 
also known in Mexico, where they probably winter. Its favorite 
haunts, while with us, are about gardens, fields of deep clover, the 
borders of woods, and road sides, where it is frequently seen perched 
on the fences. In its manners, it is extremely active and neat, and a 
vigorous and pretty good songster. It mounts to the highest tops of a 
large tree, and chants for half an hour at atime. Its song is not one 
continued strain, but a repetition of short notes, commencing loud and 
rapid, and falling, by almost imperceptible gradations, for six or eight 
seconds, till they seem hardly articulate, as if the little minstrel were 
quite exhausted; and, after a pause of half a minute, or less, com- 
mences again as before. Some of our birds sing only in spring, and 
then chiefly in the morning, being comparatively mute during the heat 
of noon; but the Indigo Bird chants with as much animation under 
the meridian sun, in the month of July, as in the month of May; and 
continues his song, occasionally, to the middle or end of August. His 
usual note, when alarmed by an approach to his nest, is a sharp chip, 
like that of striking two hard pebbles smartly together. 
Notwithstanding the beauty of his plumage, the vivacity with which 
he sings, and the ease with which he can be reared and kept, the In- 
digo Bird is seldom seen domesticated. The few I have met with 
were taken in trap cages; and such of any species rarely sing equal 
to those which have been reared by hand from the nest. There is one 
singularity which, as it cannot be well represented in the figure, may 
be mentioned here, viz. that, in some certain lights, his plumage ap- 
pears of a rich sky blue, and in others of a vivid verdigris green; so 
that the same bird, in passing from one place to another before your 
eyes, seems to undergo a total change of color. When the angle of 
incidence of the rays of light, reflected from his plumage, is acute, 
the color is green; when obtuse, blue. Such, I think, I have observed 
to be uniformly the case, without being optician enough to explain 
why it isso. From this, however, must be excepted the color af the 
head, which, being of a very deep blue, is not affected by a change of 
position. 
The nest of this bird is usually built ina low bush, among rank 
grass, grain, or clover, suspended by two twigs, one passing up each 
side; and is composed outwardly of flax, and lined with fine dry grass. 
I have also known it to build in the hollow of an apple-tree. The eggs, 
generally five, are blue, with a blotch of purple at the great end. 
The Indigo Bird is five inches long, and seven inches in extent ; 
the whole body is of a rich sky blue, deepening on the head to an al- 
tramarine, with a tinge of purple; the blue on the body, tail, and 
wings, varies in particular lights to a light green, or verdigris color, 
similar to that on the breast of a Peacock; wings, black, edged with 
© Tarvels, p. 299. 
cf 
