26 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
reared and kept, the Indigo bird is seldom seen domesti- 
cated. 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 cer- 
tain lights his plumage appears of a rich sky-blue, and in 
others of a vivid verdigrise 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, without heiug 
optician enough to explain why it is so. From this, how- 
ever, must he 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 hush 
among rank grass, grain or clover; suspended by two 
twigs, one passing up each side; and is composed outward- 
ly 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 verdigrise colour, 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 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 colour, 
with the wings dusky black, and the cheeks, breast, and 
whole lower parts a clay colour, with streaks of a darker 
colour under the wings, and tinged in several places with 
bluish. Towards fall the male while moulting becomes 
nearly of the colour 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, 
this brownness would have been of shorter duration. The 
usual food of this species is insects and various kinds of 
seeds. — lb. 
* See figure in Plate III. Vol. 3. 
DOG-WOOD. 
CORJVUS FLORIDA. 
A Branch, with Leaves and Flowers of the natural size. Plate III. Vol. 3. 
Among the eight species of Dog-wood, which have 
been observed in North America, this alone is entitled, by 
its size, to be classed with the forest trees. It is the most 
interesting, too, for the value of its wood, the properties 
of its bark, and the beauty of its flowers. In the United 
States at large, it is known by the name of Dog-wood, and 
in Connecticut it is also called Box-wood. 
The Dog-wood is first seen in Massachusetts, between 
the 42° and 43° of latitude, and in proceeding southward, 
it is met with uninterruptedly throughout the eastern and 
western states and the two Floridas, to the banks of the 
Mississippi. Over this vast extent of country, it is one 
of the most common trees, and it abounds particularly in 
New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 
wherever the soil is moist, gravelly, and uneven; farther 
south, in the Carolinas, Georgia, and the Floridas, it is 
found only in the borders of swamps, and never in pine 
barrens, where the soil is too dry and sandy to sustain its 
vegetation. In the most fertile regions of Kentucky, 
and West Tennessee, it does not appear in the forest, 
except where the soil is gravelly, and of middling quality. 
The Dog-wood sometimes reaches thirty or thirty-five 
feet in height, and nine or ten inches in diameter; but it 
does not generally exceed the height of eighteen or 
twenty feet, and the diameter of four or five inches. The 
trunk is strong, and is covered with a blackish bark, 
chapped into many small portions, which are often in the 
shape of squares, more or less exact. The branches are 
proportionably less numerous than on other trees, and are 
regularly disposed nearly in the form of crosses. The 
young twigs are observed to incline upwards in a semi- 
circular direction. 
The leaves are opposite, about three inches in length, 
oval, of a dark green above, and whitish beneath; the 
upper surface is very distinctly sulcated. Towards the 
close of summer, they are often marked with black spots, 
and at the approach of winter they change to a dull red. 
In New-York and New-Jersey, the flowers are fully 
blown about the 10th or ISth of May, while the leaves 
are only beginning to unfold themselves. The flowers 
are small, yellowish, and collected in bunches, which are 
surrounded with a very large involuere, composed of 
four white floral leaves, sometimes inclining to violet. 
This fine involuere constitutes all the beauty of the flow- 
ers, which are very numerous, and which, in their season, 
