cated pernicious Blue Jays, the fiercest, boldest, and most dangerous of all the enemies 

 of our small birds. 



The breeding range of the Blue Grosbeak extends over the Southern States, north to 

 Washington, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, and west to Texas, Indian Territory, and 

 Kansas. A little larger variety, of a rather lighter blue color and with much broader 

 and paler rufous wing-bands occurs in the western United States, especially in Arizona 

 and California, north to Colorado. This is the Western Blue Grosbeak, Guiraca 

 cseralea eurhyncha Coues. It does not differ in its manners from the eastern form. 



The Blue Grosbeak is well adapted for the cage, soon becoming very confiding and 

 much attached to its keeper. I have kept several for a long time in the cage, and they 

 lived peacefiiUy together with a large number of African and Australian Finches. A 

 mixture of millet, Canary seed, KaiEr corn, rice in its natural state, formed their main 

 diet in winter, with an addition of all kinds of fruits. In spring and summer crated 

 hard boiled eggs, ant's eggs, grasshoppers, and especially mealworms are a compensation 

 for the insect food in its haunts. The French Creoles, in New Orleans, are great 

 admirers of the Blue Grosbeaks, and they fi-equently keep them in cages, usually under 

 the name of "Le Grosbec ou EvSque bleu," its common name being "Blue Pop." 



NAMES: Blue Grosbeak, Blue Pop.— Blauer Kembeisser, Bischof (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Loxia casrulea Linn. (1758). GUIRACA C^RULEA Swains. (1827). Gotdopbxa 

 cserulea Sclat. (1856). 



DESCRIPTION: "Adult male: Uniform dull ultramarine blue; lores, black; wings and tail, blackish; the 

 feathers edged with bluish, the former with two fulvous bands. Adult female: Above, fulvous-brown; 

 beneath, paler fulvous; wings and tail, dusky; the former with two light fulvous bands. Young: 

 Similar to adult female, but colors more ochraceous, the wing-bands more rusty, etc. Immature 

 males: The plumage of the adult male and female mixed, in various proportions, according to age. 

 Adult males in winter: Blue or black, breast, etc., more or less obscured by light brownish or buffy 

 tips to feathers.— Length, 6.35 to 7.50 inches ; wing, 3.35 to 3.60 ; tail, 2.70 to 2.90 inches." (Ridgway.) 



INDIGO BUNTING. 



Passerina cyatiea Gray. 



Plate XXVIII. Fig. 2 and 3. 



Jes' so our spring gits everythin' in tune 

 An' gives one leap from April into June : 

 Then all. comes crowdin' in ; afore yon tliink, 

 Yonng oak-leaves mist the side-hill -woods with pink ; 

 The Catbird in the laylock-bush is loud ; 

 The orchards turn to heaps o' rosy clouds; 

 Red-cedars blossom tu, though few folks know it, 

 An' look" all dipt in sunshine like a poet. 



J. R. LowEi.1,. (In "Biglow Papers.") 



'E ARE rambling about in south-western Missouri on a beautiful day in May, 

 and the soft, balmy air is filled with the delicious fragrance of the flowering 

 wild grape-vines. The woods on the plateaus are much less beautiful and varied than 

 in many other portions of our great country, consisting, as they do, mainly of the 



