474 
GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 
beneath pale yellowish- white. — Young and autumnal male , as 
the female, but more tinged with bluish. 
This very beautiful and rather familiar messenger of 
summer, after passing the winter in tropical America, 
towards the 15th of May, decked in his brilliant azure 
livery, of the nuptial season, again joyfully visits his natal 
regions, in the Middle States ; and about a week or ten 
days later his lively trill in the garden, orchard, or on 
the top of the house, its chimney, or vane, is first heard 
in this part of New England. Still later, accompanied by 
his mate, he passes on to Nova Scotia, and probably to 
the precincts of Labrador. After raising and training 
their only brood, in an uniform and more humble dress, 
the whole family, in color like so many common Spar- 
rows, begin to retire to the South from the first to the 
middle of September. They are also known in Mexico, 
where, as well as in the Southern States to the penin- 
sula of Florida, they probably breed and pass the sum- 
mer as with us. There is reason, however, to believe 
that they are less abundant, if seen at all, to the west of 
the Mississippi ; but yet they are met with in the Western 
States up to the alluvial lands of that great natural boun- 
dary. 
Their food in the early part of the season, as well as 
that of their young for a considerable time, is chiefly 
insects, worms, and caterpillars, as well as grasshoppers, 
of which they are particularly fond. They likewise eat 
seeds of various kinds, and are readily reared in a cage 
on the usual diet of the Canary. 
Though naturally shy, active, and suspicious, particu- 
larly the brilliant male, they still, at this interesting pe- 
riod of procreation, resort chiefly to the precincts of hab- 
itations, around which they are far more common than in 
the solitary woods, seeking their borders, or the thickets 
