98 INDIGO BUNTING. 



Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, and in the Bulfinch, Chaffinch, and other 

 European birds. 



The nest of the Indigo-bird is usually fixed amongst the rankest stalks of 

 weeds or grass, now and then amongst the stems of a briar, or even in a 

 small hollow in a decayed tree. In all cases its composition is the same; 

 but when amongst grass, clover, or briars, it is attached to two or three of 

 the stalks by its sides. It is formed of coarse grasses, hemp stalks, and 

 flax, and is lined with slender grasses. The female lays from four to six 

 eggs, which are blue, with a spot or two of purple at the larger end. 



Towards fall, the young congregate into loose flocks or parties of eight or 

 ten individuals, and proceed southward. I think their migration, at both 

 periods of the year, is performed during night. Two broods are generally 

 raised in a season. The food of the Indigo-bird consists of small seeds of 

 various kinds, as well as insects, some of which it occasionally pursues on 

 wing with great vigour. They are fond of basking and rolling themselves 

 in the roads, from which they gather small particles of sand or gravel. I 

 have frequently seen live birds of this species offered for sale in Europe. 



I have represented an adult female, two young males of the first and 

 second year, in autumn, and a male in the full beauty of its plumage. They 

 are placed on a plant usually called the wild sarsaparilla. It grows in 

 Louisiana, on the skirts of the forests, in low damp places, and along the 

 fields, where the Indigo-birds are to be found. It is a creeping plant, and is 

 considered valuable on account of its medicinal properties. 



I observed this species breeding in the Texas late in April, and it would 

 appear from a note sent by my friend Dr. T. M. Brewer of Boston, that it 

 reaches the neighbourhood of that city early in June, but does not commence 

 its nest there until the latter part of that month, or early in July. He 

 further states that it "is abundant near Boston, and when it arrives in spring 

 generally chooses the highest chimney-tops to alight upon. They appear 

 much attached to particular districts. A pair has now for five years in suc- 

 cession built in my father's garden, but this year, something would seem to 

 have befallen them, for they have not made their appearance. One year 

 they raised a second brood. This is the only instance in which I have 

 known them to do so. The nest is usually placed in a bush or low tree, 

 about three feet from the ground, and with us has uniformly been built of 

 Russia matting, purloined from our grape-vines, lined with fine grass and 

 hair. The eggs, four in number, are eleven-sixteenths of an inch in length, 

 seven-sixteenths in breadth, and of a uniform white colour, without the 

 slightest blotch or mark. I have never met with an egg having this purple 

 blotch at the larger end, which you and Wilson mention as existing there, 



