INDIGO BIRD. 347 
In this vicinity they are rare during the breeding season; I have but 
once discovered their nest. This was placed in a low thorn-tree in a 
thicket on the edge of a sycamore grove on the bank of the Olentangy 
River. I was attracted to the locality by the loud, clear and flute-like 
voice of the male, who, perched high in the branches of the tall trees, 
sang by the hour his incomparable notes. Audubon states that he found 
their nest and eggs in the vicinity of Cincinnati. 
The nest is placed in a low tree on the edge of woods or on the bank of 
astream. It is composed of small twigs, vegetable fibres, and grass; the 
eges vary from light green to greenish-white, thickly spotted with red- 
dish-brown. They measure about 1 00 by .75. The males assist in, if they 
do not largely perform, the duties of incubation. 
In the fall the males migrate in small companies of ten or twelve, and 
from the fact that all which I have seen resemble the females, except 
in having the under wing-coverts and spot on the breast carmine, I sus- 
pect that old males lose their black, and become streaked in the fall. (?) 
GENUS CYANOSPIZA. Baird. 
Bill deep at base, compressed; the commissure with an obtuse shallow lobe in the 
middle. Tarsus about equal to middle toe; outer toe barely longer than inner, its claw 
falling short of base of middle claw. Claws much curved, acute. Wings long and 
pointed, longer than the nearly even tail, and reaching to its middle. 
CYANOSPIZA CYANEA (L.) Bp. 
Indigo Bird. 
._Fringilla cyanea, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 164, 183.—ReaD, Proc. Phila. Acad. 
Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395. 
GONIAPHEA CZZRULEA (L.) Sclater. 
Blue Grosbeak. 
Guiraca cerulea, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 1861, 379; Reprint, 21 (probable). 
—LANGDON, Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 176; Reprint, 22 
(probable). 
Goniaphea cerulea, WHEATON, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 1875, 566; 
Reprint, 6.—LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 9. 
Loxia cerulea, LINNZUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 306. 
Guiraca cerulea, SWAINSON, Philos. Mag., i, 1827, 438. 
Goniaphea cerulea, SCLATER, P. Z.S., 1856, 301. 
Habitat, United States southerly, from Atlantic to Pacific. In the East, north to the 
Middle States regularly ; to Connecticut Valley occasionally ; to Maine casually. In the 
interior north to the Platte. In the West, north through California. South to Mexico 
and Central America. Cuba. 
Given in my list of 1875 on what I now consider insufficient authority. 
