108 
The Indigo Bunting 
called “Blue Pop,” a corruption of Bleu Pape (pope; of the French. 
Thomas Nuttall and Alexander Wilson, both writing in the early days 
of 1800, speak of the Indigo Bunting as one of the most familiar of 
cage-birds. Not only had this traffic existed since the 
Captivity days of Wilson, but, until a very few years ago, when 
the Audubon movement began to be a power, this 
Bunting, together with its cousin, the beautiful Painted Bunting, or 
Nonpareil, the Cardinal Grosbeak, and the Mockingbird, were sold, as 
a matter of course, by every bird-dealer in the country. This is no longer 
permitted. 
Oh, the untold misery and waste of this caging and selling of free- 
born birds ! It is only one grade less direct a slaughter than killing 
them to trim a bonnet. While the sufferings of the bonnet-bird have 
ended with its life, those of the caged bird have only begun as the 
door closes behind it. 
A few exceptional instances, of birds whose keepers are both able 
and willing to make their surroundings endurable, count as nothing 
against the general condemnation of the practice of caging birds born 
wild. Those of us who have known by experience in caring for wounded 
fC • or slc ^ birds exactly what incessant watchfulness is 
Cr WHd °Birds glng nec essary to keep them alive, realize how impossible 
it is that this care should be given them by the aver- 
age purchaser, who in most cases lacks the requisite knowledge. 
Birds born and reared in captivity, like the Canary, are the only 
ones that real humanity should keep behind the bars. There is no worse 
habit than allowing children to take nestlings of any kind and try to feed 
and rear them; if disaster overtakes the parents, a responsible adult 
should be the one to endeavor to succor the brood. Should we make 
prisoners of the creatures of which Longfellow writes : 
“The ballad-singers and the Troubadours, 
The street musicians of the heavenly city, 
The birds, who make sweet music for us all 
In our dark hours, as David did for Saul.” 
Classification and Distribution 
The Indigo Bunting belongs to the Order Passeres, Suborder Oscines, and the 
Family Fringillidce. The scientific name is Passerina cyancea. Its range is eastern 
North America, breeding from North Dakota and southern Ontario to southern 
Louisiana and central Georgia; and it winters in Central America and Cuba. 
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association of 
Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 
