INDIGO BIRD. IO i 



and kept, the indigo 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 appears 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 colour. When 

 the angle of incidence of the rays of light reflected from his 

 plumage is acute, the colour is green ; when obtuse, blue. 

 Such, I think, I have observed to be uniformly the case, with- 

 out being optician enough to explain why it is so. From this, 

 however, must be excepted the colour of 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 in a low bush, among 

 rank grass, grain, or clover, suspended by two twigs, one pass- 

 ing 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 ultramarine, with a tinge of purple ; the blue 

 on the body, tail, and wings, varies in particular lights to a 

 light green, or verdigris colour, similar to that on the breast 

 of a peacock ; wings, black, edged with light blue, and be- 

 coming brownish towards the tips ; lesser coverts, light blue ; 

 greater, black, broadly skirted with the same blue; tail, black, 

 exteriorly edged with blue ; bill, black above, whitish below, 

 somewhat larger in proportion than finches of the same size 

 usually are, but less than those of the genus Ernberiza, with 

 which Mr Pennant has classed it, though I think improperly, 

 as the bird has much more of the form and manners of the 

 genus Fringilla, where I must be permitted to place it ; legs 



