INDIGO BUNTING. 
313 
vine. If left undisturbed, they often build in the same garden 
or orchard for several successive years. When in a bush, the 
nest is suspended betwixt two twigs, passing up on either side. 
Externally it is composed of coarse sedge-grass, some withered 
leaves, and lined with fine stalks of the same, and the slender 
hair-like tops of the bent-grass (Agros^is), with a very few 
cow-hairs ; though sometimes they make a substantial lining of 
hair. The nest which I saw in the vine was composed out- 
wardly of coarse strips of bass-mat, weeds, and some strings 
picked up in the garden, and lined with horse-hair and a few 
tops of bent-grass. The young here scarcely leave the nest 
before the end of July or the first week in August, and they 
raise usually but a single brood in the season. They appear 
to show great timidity about their nest, and often readily for- 
sake it when touched, or when an egg is abstracted. Their 
usual note of alarm when themselves or their young are 
approached is a sharp isAip, quickly and anxiously repeated, 
resembling almost the striking of two pebbles. They will not 
forsake their young, however ready they may be to relinquish 
their eggs; and they have been known to feed their brood 
very faithfully through the bars of a cage in which they were 
confined. 
This species is a common summer resident from South Carolina 
to western Maine and the city of Quebec, and westward through 
Ontario and Illinois to the Great Plains. It also occurs occasion- 
ally in eastern Maine and the Maritime Provinces. 
Note. — One example of the Varied Bunting (JPasserina 
ve?-sicolor) has been captured in southern Michigan. Its usual 
habitat is the valley of the Rio Grande and Lower California. 
