238 
FRINGILLA CYANEA. 
acute, tlie colour is green, wlien obtuse, blue. Such, I 
think, I have observed to be uniformly the case, with- 
out being optician enough to explain why it is so. 
From this, however, must be excepted the colour of the 
head, which, being of a very deep blue, is not affected 
by a change of position. 
The nest of this bird is usually built in a low bush, 
among rank grass, grain, or clover, suspended by two 
twigs, one passing up each side ; and is composed out- 
wardly of flax, and lined with fine dry grass. The 
eggs, generally five, are blue, with a blotch of purple at 
the great end. 
The indigo bird is five inches long, and seven inches 
in extent ; the whole body is of a rich sky blue, deep- 
ening on the head to an ultramarine, with a tinge of 
purple ; the blue on the body, tail, and wings, varies in 
particular lights to a light green, or verdigris colour, 
similar to that on the breast of a peacock ; wings, black, 
edged with light blue, and becoming brownish towards 
the tips ; lesser coverts, light blue ; greater, black, 
broadly skirted with the same blue ; tail, black, exte- 
riorly edged with blue ; bill, black above, whitish below, 
somewhat larger in proportion than finches of the same 
size usually are, but less than those of the genus embe- 
riza , with which Mr Pennant has classed it, though, I 
think, improperly, as the bird has much more of the 
form and manners of the genus fringilla, where I must 
be permitted to place it ; legs and feet, blackish brown. 
The female is of a light flaxen colour, with the wings 
dusky black, and the cheeks, breast, and whole lon er 
parts, a cky colour, with streaks of a darker colour 
under the wings, and tinged in several places with 
bluish. Towards fall, the male, while moulting, becomes 
nearly of the colour of the female, and in one which I 
kept through the winter, the rich blue plumage did not 
return for more than tw r o months ; though I doubt not, 
had the bird enjoyed his liberty and natural food under 
a warm sun, this brownness would have been of shorter 
duration. The usual food of this species is insects and 
various kinds of seeds. 
