\ 



100 



INDIGO BIRD. 



FBINGILLA CYANEA. 

 [Plate VI.— Fig. 5.] 



Tanagra cyanea, Linn. Syst. I, 315. — Le Ministre, Buff on IV, 86. — Indigo Bunting, Arct. 

 Zool. II, No. 235. — Lath. Syn. Ill, 205, 63. — Blue Linnet, Edw. 273. — Peale's Mu- 

 seum, No. 6002. — Linaria cyanea, Bartram, />. 290. 



THIS is another of those rich-plumaged tribes that visit us in 

 Spring from the regions of the south. It arrives in Pennsylvania 

 on the second week in May ; and disappears about the middle of 

 September. It is numerous in all the settled parts of the middle 

 and eastern states; in the Carolinas and Georgia it is also abun- 

 dant. Tho Catesby says that it is only found at a great distance 

 from the sea ; yet round the city of New York^ and in many places 

 along the shores of New Jersey, I have met with them in plenty. 

 I may also add, on the authority of Mr. William Bartram, that 

 " tliey inhabit the continent and sea-coast islands, from Mexico to 

 Nova Scotia, from the sea-coast west beyond the Apalachian and 

 Cherokee mountains. Thev are also known in Mexico, where 

 they probably winter. Its favorite haunts, while with us, are about 

 gardens, fields of deep clover, the borders of woods, and road sides, 

 where it is frequently seen perched on the fences. In its manners 

 it is extremely active and neat; and a vigorous and pretty good 

 songster. 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 imperceptible gradations for six or eight seconds. 



* Travels, p. 299. 



