172 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
rapid, and falling by almost imperceptible gradations 
for six or eight seconds, till they seem hardly articu- 
late, as if the little minstrel were quite exhausted ; 
and after a pause of half a minute, or less, it com- 
mences again as before.’ 
“ One advantage in his song is that it is continual, 
and not reserved only for particular times of day or 
early in the season. ‘ 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 un- 
der 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.’ He is supposed to 
spend the winter in Mexico. 
“ The summer red-bird is another tropical visitor. 
His color is a rich vermilion, the wings tipped with 
dusky brown, and he is a little over seven inches 
long, with a bill large in proportion to his size. 
‘ The note of the male is a strong and sonorous 
whistle, resembling a loose trill or shake on the 
notes of a fife, frequently repeated ; that of the 
female is rather a kind of chattering, approaching 
nearly to the rapid pronunciation of cliiclcy , tuclcy - 
tuck, cliiclcy , tucky-tuck , when she sees any person 
approaching the neighborhood of her nest. She is, 
