312 
SIJSIGING BIRDS. 
confined to the cool and animating dawn of morning, but it 
is renewed and still more vigorous during the noon- day heat 
of summer. This lively strain seems composed of a repeti- 
tion of short notes ; commencing loud and rapid, and then, 
slowly falling, they descend almost to a whisper, succeeded by 
a silent interval of about half a minute, when the song is again 
continued as before. The most common of these vocal expres- 
sions sounds like she tshe (she — tshe tshee tshee — tshi ishe 
tshe. The middle syllables are uttered lispingly, in a very 
peculiar manner, and the three last gradually fall ; sometimes 
the song is varied and shortened into tshea tshea fshea tshreh, 
the last sound being sometimes doubled. This shorter song 
is usually uttered at the time that the female is engaged in 
the cares of incubation, or as the brood already appear, and 
when too great a display of music might endanger the retiring 
security of the family. From a young or imperfectly moulted 
male, on the summit of a weeping-willow, I heard the following 
singularly lively syllables, 'tie 'tie 'tie ta lee, repeated at short 
intervals. While thus prominently exposed to view, the little 
airy minstrel is continually on the watch against any surprise, 
and if he be steadily looked at or hearkened to with visible 
attention, in the next instant he is off to seek out some securer 
elevation. In the village of Cambridge I have seen one of 
these azure, almost celestial musicians, regularly chant to the 
inmates of a tall dwelling-house from the summit of the chim- 
ney or the point of the forked lightning-rod. I have also 
heard a Canary, within hearing, repeat and imitate the slowly 
lisping trill of the Indigo Bird, whose warble indeed often 
greatly resembles that of this species. The female, before 
hatching her brood, is but seldom seen, and is then scarcely 
distinguishable from a common Sparrow ; nor is she ever to be 
observed beyond the humble bushes and weeds in which she 
commonly resides. 
The nest of our bird is usually built in a low bush partly con- 
cealed by rank grass or grain ; at times in the forks of a young 
orchard tree lo or 12 feet from the ground. I have also seen 
one suspended in a complicated manner in a trellised grape- 
