INDIGO BIRD. 
475 
by the sides of the road ; but their favorite resort is the 
garden, where, from the topmost bough of some tall tree, 
which commands the whole wide landscape, the male 
regularly pours out his lively chant, and continues it for 
a considerable length of time. Nor is this song 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 repetition of short notes, commencing loud and rapid, 
and then, slowly falling, they descend almost to a whisp- 
er, succeeded by a silent interval of about half a minute, 
when the song is again continued as before. The most 
common of these vocal expressions sounds like tshe tshe 
tshe — tshe tshee tshee — tshe tshe tshe. The middle sylla- 
bles are uttered lispingly in a very peculiar manner, and 
the three last gradually fall ; sometimes it is varied and 
shortened into tshea tshea tshea tshrbh, 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 his music might endanger 
the retiring security of his 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 ele- 
vation. 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 chimney, or the point of the forked lightning-rod. I 
have also heard a Canary, within hearing, repeat and 
