(_Passerina cyanea_) Finch family
_Called also_: INDIGO BIRD
_Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. Smaller than the English sparrow,
or the size of a canary.
_Male_--In certain lights rich blue, deepest on head. In
another light the blue feathers show verdigris tints. Wings,
tail, and lower back with brownish wash, most prominent in
autumn plumage. Quills of wings and tail deep blue, margined
with light.
_Female_--Plain sienna-brown above. Yellowish on breast and
shading to white underneath, and indistinctly streaked. Wings
and tail darkest, sometimes with slight tinge of blue in outer
webs and on shoulders.
_Range_--North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Most common
in eastern part of United States. Winters in Central America
and Mexico.
_Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident.
The "glowing indigo" of this tropical-looking visitor that so
delighted Thoreau in the Walden woods, often seems only the more
intense by comparison with the blue sky, against which it stands out
in relief as the bird perches singing in a tree-top. What has this
gaily dressed, dapper little cavalier in common with his dingy sparrow
cousins that haunt the ground and delight in dust-baths, leaving their
feathers no whit more dingy than they were before, and in temper, as
in plumage, suggesting more of earth than of heaven? Apparently he has
nothing, and yet the small brown bird in the roadside thicket, which
you have misnamed a sparrow, not noticing the glint of blue in her
shoulders and tail, is his mate. Besides the structural resemblances,
which are, of course, the only ones considered by ornithologists in
classifying birds, the indigo buntings have several sparrow-like
traits. They feed upon the ground, mainly upon seeds of grasses and
herbs, with a few insects interspersed to give relish to the grain;
they build grassy nests in low bushes or tall, rank grass; and their
flight is short and labored. Borders of woods, roadside thickets, and
even garden shrubbery, with open pasture lots for foraging grounds
near by, are favorite haunts of these birds, that return again and
again to some preferred spot. But however close to our homes they
build theirs, our presence never ceases to be regarded by them with
anything but suspicion, not to say alarm. Their metallic _cheep_,
_cheep_, warns you to keep away from the little blue-white eggs,
hidden away securely in the bushes; and the nervous tail twitchings
and jerkings are pathetic to see. Happily for the safety of their
nest, the brooding mother has no tell-tale feathers to attract the
eye. Dense foliage no more conceals the male bird's brilliant coat
than it can the tanager's or oriole's.
With no attempt at concealment, which he doubtless understands would
be quite impossible, he chooses some high, conspicuous perch to which
he mounts by easy stages, singing as he goes; and there begins a loud
and rapid strain that promises much, but growing weaker and weaker,
ends as if the bird were either out of breath or too weak to finish.
Then suddenly he begins the same song over again, and keeps up this
continuous performance for nearly half an hour. The noonday heat of an
August day that silences nearly every other voice, seems to give to
the indigo bird's only fresh animation and timbre.
[Illustration: BELTED KINGFISHER (Upper Figure, Female;
Lower Figure, Male)]
[Illustration: BLUE JAY]