OF NEW ENGLAND. 231 
their nests, are always conspicuous, and ever insist on making 
their presence known. 
(d). The song of the males is of varying length, sweet and 
lively, but rather weak, forcibly reminding one of the warblers. 
The Indigo Birds have also a chip and a loud chuck. Wilson, 
in speaking of this species, says :—‘‘ It mounts to the highest 
tops of a large tree and chants for half an hour at a time. Its 
song is not one continued strain, but a repetition of short 
notes, commencing loud and rapid, and falling by almost im- 
perceptible 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, commences 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 anima- 
tion 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.” 
XXI. GUIRACA 
(A) c#ruLea.7! Blue Grosbeak. 
(I know no instance of this bird’s capture in Massachusetts, 
but it has been shot on Grand Menan Island.) 
(a). About 63 inches long. g. Above, dark blue, almost 
indigo, with no reflections. Wings and tail, black; the former 
with a few brown markings. 9, warm brown above, lighter 
and flaxen-tinted below. Wings with light bars. 
(5). The nest is built in a tree or bush; and the eggs are 
light blue, averaging about -95 X °70 of an inch. 
(c). The Blue Grosbeaks, so far as I know, cannot be prop- 
erly considered as birds of New England, though they have oc- 
curred both in New York and New Brunswick. Mr. Herrick, 
in his ‘* Partial Catalogue of the Birds of Grand Menan,” an 
71 T am strongly inclined to place this species in the genus Cyanospiza, or at 
least a genus intermediate between that and the one in which it now is, but I have 
not ventured to do so. Guiraca may stand, if the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, etc., be 
called Hydemeles, as is now generally done. 
