INDIGO-BIRD. 127 
Notwithstanding the beauty of his plumage, the vivacity with which 
he sings, and the ease with which he can be reared 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 men- 
tioned 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 color. When the angle of incidence 
of the rays of light, reflected from his plumage, is acute, the color is 
green, when obtuse, blue. Such I think I have observed to be uniformly 
the case, without being optician enough to explain why it is so. From 
this, however, must be excepted the color 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 passing 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, witli 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 ultra- 
marine, with a tinge of purple ; the blue on the body, tail, and wings, 
varies in particular lights to a light green, or verdigris color, similar to 
that on the breast of a peacock ; wings black, edged with light blue, and 
becoming 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 
Emberiza, with which Pennant has classed it, though I think improperly, 
as the bird has much more of the form and manners of the genus Frin- 
gilla, where I must be permitted to place it ; legs and feet blackish 
brown. The female is of a light flaxen color, with the wings dusky 
black, and the cheeks, breast, and whole lower parts a clay color, with 
streaks of a darker color under the wings, and tinged in several places 
with bluish. Towards fall the male while moulting becomes nearly of 
the color of the female, and in one which I kept through the winter, the 
rich plumage did not return for more than two months ; though I doubt 
not had the bird enjoyed his liberty and natural food under a warm sun i 
this brownness would have been of shorter duration. The usual food 
of this species is insects and various kinds of seeds. 
