34 Bird Day Book 



edged; bill and feet dark; general shape rounded and canary-like, 

 resembling the Goldfinch. 



The nest, in no wise typical, is a loose and rather careless 

 structure of grass, twigs, horse-hairs, roots or bits of bark placed 

 in a low, scrubby tree or brush at no great distance from the 

 ground, and the eggs are a very pale blue or bluish white, and 

 only three or four in number. 



Being a seed-eater, it is undoubtedly this Bunting's love of 

 warmth that gives him so short a season with us ; for he does not 

 come to the New England states until the first week in May, and, 

 after the August molt, when he dons the sober clothing of his 

 mate, he begins to work southward by middle of September, — 

 those from the most northerly portions of the breeding range, 

 which extends northward to Minnesota and Nova Scotia, having 

 passed by the tenth of October. It winters in Central America 

 and Southward. 



Although of the insect-eating fraternity of the conical beak, 

 the Indigo Bunting consumes many noxious insects in the nesting 

 season, when the rapid growth of the young demands animal food, 

 no matter to what race they belong. Being an inhabitant of the 

 overgrown edges of old pastures, or the brushy fences of clearings 

 and pent-roads, he is in a position where he can do a great deal 

 of good. Mr. Forbush, in his valuable book on Useful Birds and 

 Their Protection, credits the Indigo Bunting with being a con- 

 sumer of the larvae of the mischievous brown-tail moth ; but, what- 

 ever service it may do as an insect destroyer, its service the year 

 through as a consumer of weed seeds, in common with the rest 

 of its tribe, is beyond dispute. 



The voice of the Indigo Bunting is pretty rather than impres- 

 sive, and varies much in individuals. It consists of a series of 

 hurried canary-like notes repeated constantly and rising in key, but, 

 to my mind, never reaching the dignity of being called an impres- 



