A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 2

Hab. Eastern United States to the Missouri; south to Guatemala. Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 379); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 304); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I. 17); Cuba (Cab. J. IV, 8); Costa Rica (Cab. Jour. 1861, 4; Lawr. IX, 103); Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I, 552).

In this species, which may be considered the type of the genus, the tail is slightly emarginate; the second quill is longest, the first shorter than the fourth.

Habits. The common Indigo Bird of the Eastern States is found in nearly uniform and tolerable abundance in various parts of the United States, from the valley of the Missouri to the Atlantic, and from Florida to New Brunswick. It is a summer visitant, but rare, in Eastern Maine, but is common in the western part of the State, where it arrives early in May, and where it breeds. Mr. Allen speaks of it as not very common in the vicinity of Springfield, Mass., arriving there about the middle of May, and breeding in gardens, orchards, and the edges of woods, and making its nests in bushes. It leaves there about the middle of September.

In the eastern part of the State it is very unequally distributed. In certain localities it has not been met with, but in other favorite places it seems to be quite common, and to be on the increase. In the gardens of Brookline and Roxbury they are comparatively quite abundant. Mr. Maynard gives May 10 as the earliest date of their coming. He also states that in the autumn they are found in flocks, and frequent roadsides, high sandy fields, and rocky pastures, which I have never noticed. According to Dr. Coues, it is common and breeds as far south as Columbia, S. C., and, according to Mr. McIlwraith, it is a common summer resident in the neighborhood of Hamilton, Canada West. Specimens have been procured as far west as Fort Riley in Kansas. It passes the winter in Guatemala, where it is quite abundant, though a very large proportion of specimens received from there, in collections, are immature birds. It was not found in Vera Cruz by Mr. Sumichrast, nor is it given by Mr. Allen as found by him in Western Iowa, while it was common both in Northern Illinois and in Indiana. It was, however, found by Mr. Allen, in Kansas, in considerable numbers, near Leavenworth, in the spring of 1871. It was not met with by Mr. Dresser in Southwestern Texas, though Dr. Woodhouse found it quite common in the prairies of that State, where its pleasant song was heard in the timber on their edges, or in the thickets on the borders of the streams in the Indian Territory, where it was quite abundant. It was not observed on the Mexican Boundary Survey.

These birds were found, by Mr. Boucard, abundant throughout the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, having been taken both among the mountains near Totontepec, and among the hot lowlands near Plaza Vicente.

According to Wilson, this bird is not noticed in Pennsylvania much, if any, earlier than its first appearance in New England, and it leaves at about the same time. He observed it in great abundance both in South Carolina and Georgia.

In manners it is active and sprightly, and its song is vigorous and pleasant. It is considered a better singer than either the ciris or the amœna. It usually stations itself, in singing, on some high position, the top of a tree or of a chimney, where it chants its peculiar and charming song for quite a space of time. Its song consists of a repetition of short notes, at first loud and rapid, but gradually less frequent, and becoming less and less distinct. It sings with equal animation both in May and July, and its song may be occasionally heard even into August, and not less during the noonday heat of summer than in the cool of the morning. Nuttall describes its animated song as a lively strain, composed of a repetition of short notes. The most common of its vocal expressions sounds like tshe-tshe-tshe, repeated several times. While the female is engaged in the cares of incubation, or just as the brood has appeared, the song of the male is said to be much shortened. In the village of Cambridge, Nuttall observed one of this species regularly chanting its song from the point of a forked lightning-rod, on a very tall house.

The Indigo Bird usually builds its nest in the centre of a low thick bush. The first nest I ever met with was built in a thick sumach that had grown up at the bottom of a deep excavation, some fifteen feet below the surface, and but two feet above the base of the shrub. This same nest was occupied five successive summers. It was almost wholly built of matting that the birds had evidently taken from the ties of our grapevines. Each year the nest was repaired with the same material. Once only they had two broods in one season. The second brood was not hatched out until September, and the family was not ready to migrate until after nearly all its kindred had assembled and gone. This nest, though principally made of bare matting, was very neatly and thoroughly lined with hair. Other nests are made of coarse grasses and sedges, and all are usually lined in a similar manner.

Audubon and Wilson describe the eggs of this bird as blue, with purplish spots at the larger end. All that I have ever seen are white, with a slight tinge of greenish or blue, and unspotted. I have never been able to meet with a spotted egg of this bird, the identification of which was beyond suspicion. They are of a rounded-oval shape, one side is only a little more pointed than the other. They measure .75 of an inch in length by .58 in breadth. They resemble the eggs of C. amœna, but are smaller, and are not so deeply tinged with blue.

Cyanospiza amœna, BairdLAZULI FINCH

Emberiza amœna, Say, Long’s Exped. II, 1823, 47. Fringilla (Spiza) amœna, Bonap. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 61, pl. vi, f. 5. Fringilla amœna, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 64, 230, pls. cccxcviii and ccccxxiv. Spiza amœna, Bonap. List, 1838.—Aud. Syn. 1839, 109.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 100, pl. clxxi.—Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 283.—Heerm. X, s, 46. Cyanospiza amœna, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 504.—Cooper & Suckley, 205.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 233.

Cyanospiza amœna.

Sp. Char. Male. Upper parts generally, with the head and neck all round, greenish-blue; the interscapular region darker. Upper part of breast pale brownish-chestnut extending along the sides and separated from the blue of the throat by a faint white crescent; rest of under parts and axillars white. A white patch on the middle wing-coverts, and an obscurely indicated white band across the ends of the greater coverts. Loral region black. Length, about 5.50; wing, 3.90; tail, 2.60.

Female. Brown above, tinged with blue on rump and tail; whitish beneath, tinged with buff on the breast and throat; faint white bands on wings.

Hab. High Central Plains to the Pacific.

This species is about the size of C. cyanea; the bill exactly similar. The females of the two species are scarcely distinguishable, except by the faint traces of one or two white bands on the wings in amœna. Sometimes both the throat and the upper part of the breast are tinged with pale brownish-buff.

Habits. The Lazuli Finch was first obtained by Mr. Say, who met with it in Long’s expedition. It was observed, though rarely, along the banks of the Arkansas River during the summer months, as far as the base of the Rocky Mountains. It was said to frequent the bushy valleys, keeping much in the grass, after its food, and seldom alighting on either trees or shrubs.

Townsend, who found this rather a common bird on the Columbia, regarded it as shy and retiring in its habits, the female being very rarely seen. It possesses lively and pleasing powers of song, which it pours forth from the upper branches of low trees. Its nests were usually found placed in willows along the margins of streams, and were composed of small sticks, fine grasses, and buffalo-hair.

Mr. Nuttall found the nest of this bird fastened between the stem and two branches of a large fern. It was funnel-shaped, being six inches in height and three in breadth.

This bird possibly occurs quite rarely, as far east as the Mississippi, as I have what is said to be its egg taken from a nest near St. Louis. It only becomes abundant on the plains. Mr. Ridgway found it very generally distributed throughout his route, inhabiting all the bushy localities in the fertile districts. He regarded it as, in nearly every respect, the exact counterpart of the eastern C. cyanea. The notes of the two birds are so exactly the same that their song would be undistinguishable but for the fact that in the amœna it is appreciably weaker. He found their nests usually in the low limbs of trees, near their extremity, and only a few feet from the ground. Mr. J. A. Allen found this species common in Colorado, more so among the foot-hills than on the plains, but does not appear to have met with it in Kansas.

This species, Mr. Lord states, visits Vancouver Island and British Columbia early in the summer, arriving at the island in May, and rather later east of the Cascades. The song of the male is said to be feeble, and only now and then indulged in, as if to cheer his more sombre partner during incubation. The nest, he adds, is round and open at the top, composed of various materials worked together, lined with hair, and placed in a low bush, usually by the side of a stream.

The Lazuli Finch was met with in large numbers, and many of their nests procured, by Mr. Xantus, in the neighborhood of Ft. Tejon, California. Indeed, it is a very abundant species generally on the Pacific coast, and is found at least as far north as Puget Sound, during the summer. It arrives at San Diego, according to Dr. Cooper, about April 22, and remains there until October. A male bird, kept in a cage over winter, was found to retain its blue plumage. It is a favorite cage-bird in California, where it is absurdly known as the Indigo Bird. During the summer months, according to Dr. Cooper, there is hardly a grove in the more open portions of the State uninhabited by one or more pairs of this beautiful species. Although the female is very shy and difficult to obtain, except on the nest, the male is not timid, and frequently sings his lively notes from the top of some bush or tree, continuing musical in all weathers and throughout the summer. He describes its song as unvaried, as rather monotonous, and closely resembling that of C. cyanea.

Their nest, he adds, is usually built in a bush, not more than three or four feet from the ground, formed of fibrous roots, strips of bark, and grass, with a lining of vegetable down or hair, and securely bound to the surrounding branches. The eggs, five in number, he describes as white, faintly tinged with blue. At Santa Barbara he found them freshly laid May 6.

These birds are never gregarious, though the males come in considerable flocks in the spring, several days before the females. They travel at night, arriving at Santa Cruz about April 12. A nest found by Dr. Cooper, May 7, in a low bush close to a public road, was about three feet from the ground. It was very strongly built, supported by a triple fork of the branch, and was composed of blades of grass firmly interwoven, and lined with horsehair and cobwebs. It measured three inches in height and three and three fourths in width. The cavity was two inches deep and one and three fourths wide.

In Arizona Dr. Coues found this bird a summer resident, but not abundant.

At Puget Sound this bird arrives about May 15. Dr. Suckley states that in Oregon it was observed returning from the south, in large flocks, in one instance of several hundred individuals.

The eggs of the Lazuli, when fresh, are of a light blue, which on the least exposure soon fades into a bluish-white. They are almost exactly oval in shape, and measure .75 by .60 of an inch. One end is somewhat more rounded, but the difference is slight.

Cyanospiza versicolor, BairdVARIED BUNTING

Spiza versicolor, Bon. Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1837, 120.—Ib. Conspectus Av. 1850, 475.—Cab. Mus. Hein. 1851, 148. Carduelis luxuosus, Lesson, Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 41. Cyanospiza versicolor, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 503, pl. lvi, f. 2.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 234.

Sp. Char. Posterior half of hood, with throat, dark brownish-red; interscapular region similar, but darker. Forepart of hood, lesser wing-coverts, back of the neck, and rump, purplish-blue; the latter purest blue; the belly reddish-purple, in places tinged with blue, more obscure posteriorly. Feathers of wing and tail dark-brown, edged with dull bluish. Loral region and narrow frontal band black. Feathers on side of rump white at base. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.38.

Female. Yellowish-brown; paler beneath, and lightest behind. No white on wing. Tail with a bluish gloss.

Hab. Northern Mexico, and Cape St. Lucas. Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365); Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 379); Orizaba (Scl. 1857, 214); (Sum. M. B. S. I, 551; breeding); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 17).

The bill is stouter and more swollen to the end, and the mandible is much more curved than that of C. cyanea; and its perfectly concave commissure, without any shallow lobe in the middle, and the much more arched ridge, would almost separate the two generically. The wing is shorter and more rounded, the fourth quill longest, then the third, second, and fifth. The first is only a little longer than the seventh. The tail is decidedly rounded; rather more so than in C. cyanea.

The female is very similar to those of C. amœna and cyanea. The former has whitish bands on the wing; the latter differs in shape of bill, and has the first quill but little less than the second, or longest; not shorter than the sixth. In 34,033 ♂, Cape St. Lucas (June 26), the colors are much brighter than in any other of the collection. The whole occiput is bright scarlet, and the forehead nearly pure light blue, neither having scarcely a tinge of purple.

Autumnal and winter males have the bright tints very slightly obscured by grayish-brown tips to the feathers, especially on the back. The female in autumn is much more brown above and more rusty beneath than in spring.

Habits. This beautiful species has only doubtful claims to a place in our fauna. It is a Mexican species, and may occasionally cross into our territory. It was met with at Boquillo, in the Mexican State of New Leon, by Lieutenant Couch. It was procured in Guatemala by Dr. Van Patten and by Salvin, and is given by Bonaparte as from Peru. It is also found at Cape St. Lucas, where it is not rare, and where it breeds.

This bird is also found at Orizaba, according to Sumichrast, but is quite rare in the State of Vera Cruz. Its common name is Prusiano. Its geographical distribution he was not able satisfactorily to ascertain.

Among the memoranda of Mr. Xantus made at Cape St. Lucas, we find the following in connection with this species: 517, nest and three eggs of Cyanospiza versicolor; obtained May 5 on a myrtle hanging down from very high perpendicular bluffs, off the Trajoles, at Cape St. Lucas. 1535, nest and eggs of the same found on a vine ten feet high.

Specimens of this species were taken by Mr. Boucard at Oaxaca, Mexico, during the winter months.

Cyanospiza ciris, BairdNONPAREIL; PAINTED BUNTING

Emberiza ciris, Linn. Kong. Sv. Vet. Akad. Hand. 1750, 278; tab. vii, f. 1.—Ib. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 313.—Wilson, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 68, pl. xxiv, f. 1, 2. Passerina ciris, Vieillot, Gal. Ois. I, 1824, 81, pl. lxvi. Fringilla ciris, Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 279; V, 517, pl. liii. Spiza ciris, Bon. List, 1838.—Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 476.—Aud. Syn. 1839, 108.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 93, pl. clxix. Cyanospiza ciris, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 503.—Ib. Mex. Bound. II, Birds, 17, pl. xviii, f. 2.—Heerm. X, c, p. 14. ? Fringilla mariposa, Scopoli, Annals Hist. Nat. I, 1769, 151. Painted Finch, Catesby, Pennant.

Sp. Char. Male. Head and neck all round ultramarine-blue, excepting a narrow stripe from the chin to the breast, which, with the under parts generally, the eyelids, and the rump (which is tinged with purplish), are vermilion-red. Edges of chin, loral region, greater wing-coverts, inner tertiary, and interscapular region, green; the middle of the latter glossed with yellow. Tail-feathers, lesser wing-coverts, and outer webs of quills, purplish-blue. Length, about 5.50 inches; wing, 2.70.

Female. Clear dark green above; yellowish beneath. Young, like female.

Hab. South Atlantic and Gulf States to the Pecos River, Texas; south into Middle America to Panama; S. Illinois (Ridgway); Honduras (Scl. 1858, 358); Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 379); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 304); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 17); Honduras (Scl. II, 10); Cuba (Cab. J. IV, 8); Veragua (Salv. 1867, 142); Costa Rica (Lawr. IX, 102); Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I, 552); Yucatan (Lawr. IX, 200).

Tail very slightly emarginated and rounded; second, third, and fourth quills equal; first rather shorter than the fifth.

The female is readily distinguishable from that of C. cyanea by the green instead of dull brown of the back, and the yellow of the under parts.

Specimens of this species from all parts of its range appear to be quite identical.

Habits. The Nonpareil or Painted Bunting of the Southern and Southeastern States has a somewhat restricted distribution, not being found any farther to the north on the Atlantic Coast than South Carolina and Georgia, and probably only in the more southern portions of those States. It has been traced as far to the west as Texas. It was also met with at Monterey, Mexico, by Lieutenant Couch, and in winter by Mr. Boucard, at Plaza Vicente, Oaxaca.

Mr. Dresser found it very common both at Matamoras and at San Antonio, breeding in both places. Dr. Coues did not meet with it in Columbia, S. C., and considers it as confined to the low country, and as rare even there. It breeds about the city of Charleston, S. C., from which neighborhood I have received its eggs in considerable numbers, from Dr. Bachman. It is also found in the lower counties of Georgia, and breeds in the vicinity of Savannah. It was not met with by Dr. Gerhardt in the northern portion of that State. Dr. Woodhouse found it quite abundant in all parts of Texas, where he tells us the sweet warblings of this beautiful and active little Finch added much to the pleasures of his trip across the prairies. Its favorite places of resort appeared to be small thickets, and when singing it selected the highest branches of a bush.

In the Report on the birds of the Mexican Boundary Survey, Lieutenant Couch met with this species among the low hedges in the suburbs of Pesqueria Grande. Mr. J. H. Clark observed that the individuals of this species diminished as they proceeded westward. The male was almost always seen alone, flying a long distance for so small a bird. Their nests, he adds, were built of very fine grass, in low bushes, and resting in the crotch of the twigs. Males were never seen about the nest, but the females were so gentle as to allow themselves to be taken off the nest, which was deliberately done on more than one occasion.

Dr. Kennerly reports having often listened to the melodious warblings of this beautiful Finch in the vicinity of San Antonio, Texas, where he found it very abundant among the thick mesquite-bushes, in the month of July. It was deservedly a great favorite there, both on account of the beauty of its plumage and its notes.

Wilson found this bird one of the most numerous summer birds of Lower Louisiana, where it was universally known among the French inhabitants as Le Pape. Its gay dress and its docility of manners procured it many admirers. Wilson also states that he met with these birds in the low countries of all the Southern States, in the vicinity of the sea and along the borders of the large rivers, particularly among the rice plantations. He states that a few were seen near the coast in North Carolina, but they were more numerous in South Carolina, and still more so in Georgia, especially the lower parts. At Natchez, on the Mississippi, they were comparatively scarce, but below Baton Rouge, on the levee, they appeared in great numbers. Around New Orleans they were warbling from almost every fence. Their notes very much resemble those of the Indigo Bird, but lack their energy, and are more feeble and concise.

Wilson met with these birds very generally in the houses of the French inhabitants of New Orleans. In the aviary of a wealthy French planter near Bayou Fourche, he found two pairs of these birds so far reconciled to their confinement as to have nests and hatch out their eggs. Wilson was of the opinion that with the pains given to the Canary these birds would breed with equal facility. Six of them, caught only a few days before his departure, were taken with him by sea. They soon became reconciled to their cage, and sang with great sprightliness. They were very fond of flies, and watched with great eagerness as the passengers caught them for their benefit, assembling in the front of the cage and stretching their heads through the wires to receive them.

These birds, he states, arrive in Louisiana from the South about the middle of April, and build early in May. They reach Savannah about the 20th of April. Their nests are usually fixed in orange hedges or in the lower branches of the trees. He often found them in common bramble and blackberry bushes. They are formed exteriorly of dry grass intermingled with the silk of caterpillars, with hair and fine rootlets. Some nests had eggs as late as the 25th of June, which were probably a second brood. The food of this bird consists of rice, insects, and various kinds of seeds. They also feed on the seeds of ripe figs.

A single specimen of this species was detected by Mr. Ridgway in Southern Illinois between Olney and Mount Carmel, on the 10th of June. It is therefore presumed to be a rare summer resident in that locality.

The Nonpareil is possessed of a very pugnacious disposition, and, according to Mr. Audubon, the bird-dealers of New Orleans take advantage of this peculiarity in a very ingenious manner to trap them. A male bird is stuffed and set up in an attitude of defence on the platform of a trap-cage. The first male bird of this species that notices it is sure to make an attack upon it, and is at once trapped. So pertinacious are they that even when thus imprisoned the captive repeats its attack upon its supposed rival. They feed almost immediately upon being caught, and usually thrive in confinement, Audubon mentioning one that had been caged for ten years.

This bird is very easily made to breed in confinement. Dr. Bachman has had a single pair thus raise three broods in a season.

The eggs of this species measure .80 by .65 of an inch, and do not at all resemble the eggs of the cyanea or amœna. They have a dull or pearly-white ground, and are very characteristically marked with blotches and dots of purplish and reddish brown.

Genus SPERMOPHILA, Swainson

Spermophila, Swainson, Zoöl. Jour. III, Nov. 1827, 348. (Type, Pyrrhula falcirostris, Temm. Sufficiently distinct from Spermophilus, F. Cuv. 1822.)

Sporophila, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 148. (Type, Fringilla hypoleuca, Licht.)

Spermophila moreleti.

30524 ♂

Gen. Char. Bill very short and very much curved, as in Pyrrhula, almost as deep as long; the commissure concave, abruptly bent towards the end. Tarsus about equal to middle toe; inner toe rather the longer (?), reaching about to the base of the middle one; hind toe to the middle of this claw. Wings short, reaching over the posterior third of the exposed part of the tail; the tertiaries gradually longer than the secondaries, neither much shorter than the primaries, which are graduated, and but little different in length, the first shorter than the sixth, the second and fourth equal. The tail is about as long as the wings, rounded, all the feathers slightly graduated, rather sharply acuminate and decidedly mucronate. Smallest of American passerine birds.

The essential characters of this genus are the small, very convex bill, as high as long; the short broad wings, with the quills differing little in length, the outer ones graduated; the tail as long as the wings, widened towards the end, and slightly graduated, with the acuminate and mucronate tip to the feathers.