236 
FRINGILLA CYANEA. 
particularly subject to changes of colour, both progres- 
sively, during the first and second seasons ; and also 
periodically, afterwards. Some of those that inhabit 
Pennsylvania change from an olive green to a greenish 
yellow,* and, lastly, to a brilliant scarlet ; and I confess, 
when the preserved specimen of the present species 
was first shewn me, I suspected it to have been passing 
through a similar change at the time it was taken. 
But, having examined two more skins of the same 
species, and finding them all marked very nearly alike, 
which is seldom the case with those birds that change 
while moulting, I began to think that this might be its 
most permanent, or, at least, its summer or winter dress. , 
The little information I have been able to procure of 
the species generally, or at what particular season these 
were shot, prevents me from being able to determine 
this matter to my wish. 
I can only learn, that they inhabit the extensive 
plains or prairies of the Missouri, between the Osage 
and Mandan nations ; building their nests in low bushes, 
and often among the grass. With us the tanagers 
usually build on the branches of a hickory or white oak 
sapling. These birds delight in various kinds of berries, 
with which those rich prairies are said to abound. 
GENUS XXXIII — FRINGILLA , Linnaeus. 
SUBGENUS I SPIZA , BONAPARTE. 
158 . FRINGILLA CYANEA , WILSON INDIGO BIRD. 
WILSON, PLATE VI. FIG. V. 
This is another of those rich plumaged tribes that 
visit us in spring from the regions of the south. It 
arrives in Pennsylvania on the second week in May, 
and disappears about the middle of September. It is 
numerous in all the settled parts of the middle and 
eastern States ; in the Carolinas and Georgia it is also 
abundant. Though Catesby says that it is only found 
at a great distance from the sea, yet round the city of 
New York, and in many places along the shores of New 
Jersey, I have met with them in plenty. I may also add, 
