rd, flitting from one place to another, appears to undergo an
entire change of color.

The Indigo Bunting fixes his nest in a low bush, long rank grass, grain,
or clover, suspended by two twigs, flax being the material used, lined
with fine dry grass. It had been known, however, to build in the hollow
of an apple tree. The eggs, generally five, are bluish or pure white.
The same nest is often occupied season after season. One which had been
used for five successive summers, was repaired each year with the same
material, matting that the birds had evidently taken from the covering
of grape vines. The nest was very neatly and thoroughly lined with hair.

The Indigo feeds upon the ground, his food consisting mainly of the seed
of small grasses and herbs. The male while moulting assumes very nearly
the color of the female, a dull brown, the rich plumage not returning
for two or three months. Mrs. Osgood Wright says of this tiny creature:
"Like all the bright-hued birds he is beset by enemies both of earth and
sky, but his sparrow instinct, which has a love for mother earth, bids
him build near the ground. The dangers of the nesting-time fall mostly
to his share, for his dull brown mate is easily overlooked as an
insignificant sparrow. Nature always gives a plain coat to the wives of
these gayly dressed cavaliers, for her primal thought is the safety of
the home and its young life."

[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.
INDIGO BIRD.
Life-size.]

THE NIGHT HAWK.

The range of the Night Hawk, also known as "Bull-bat," "Mosquito Hawk,"
"Will o' the Wisp," "Pisk," "Piramidig," and sometimes erroneously as
"Whip-poor-will," being frequently mistaken for that bird, is an
extensive one. It is only a summer visitor throughout the United States
and Canada, generally arriving from its winter haunts in the Bahamas, or
Central and South America in the latter part of April, reaching the more
northern parts about a month later, and leaving the latter again in
large straggling flocks about the end of August, moving leisurely
southward and disappearing gradually along our southern border about the
latter part of October. Major Bendire says its migrations are very
extended and cover the greater part of the American continent.

The Night Hawk, in making its home, prefers a well timbered country. Its
common name is somewhat of a misnomer, as it is not nocturnal in its
habits. It is not a