SrEciEs XVII. FR IN GILL A CYANEA. 
INDIGO-BIRD. 
[Plate VI. Fig. 5.] 
Tanagra qjanea, Linn. Syst. i., 315. — Le Ministre, Buffon, iv., 96. — Indigo Bunt- 
ing, Aid. Zool, ii.. No. 235. — Lath. Syn. in., 205, 63. — Blue Linnet, Edw. 273. — 
Linaria cgmica, Bartram, p. 290. 
Tins 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 abundant. Though 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 " they inhabit the continent and sea-coast 
islands, from Mexico to Nova Scotia, from the sea-coast west beyond 
the Apalachian and Cherokee Mountains."* They are also known in 
Mexico, where they probably winter. Its favorite haunts, while with 
us, arc about gardens, fields of deep clover, the borders of woods, and 
road sides, where it is frecpuently 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, 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 animation 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. His usual note, when alarmed by an 
approach to his nest, is a sharp chip, like that of striking two hard 
pebbles smartly together. 
* Travels, p. 299. 
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