Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, volume 1.djvu/460

432 hair. I have found these nests always attached to two slender twigs of Willow. The eggs are four or five, pure white, with a few reddish dots at the larger end. Two broods are reared in a season. The young and old hunt and migrate together, passing amongst the tops of the highest trees, from one to another. They leave the State of Louisiana in the beginning of October, the Middle States about the middle of September. I have seen some of these birds on the border line of Upper Canada, along the shores of Lake Erie. I have also observed them in Kentucky, Indiana, and along the Arkansas River. In the plate is represented, along with a pair of these delicate birds, a twig of one of our most valuable trees, with its pendulous blossoms. This tree, the Black Walnut, grows in almost every part of the United States, in the richest soils, and attains a great height and diameter. The wood is used for furniture of all sorts, receives a fine polish, and is extremely durable. The stocks of muskets are generally made of it. The Black Walnut is plentiful in all the alluvial grounds in the vicinity of our rivers. The fruit is contained in a very hard shell, and is thought good by many people.

, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 540—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 85. , Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 337. , Lath. Synops. vol. iv. p. 490. , Wils. Amer. Ornith, vol. ii. p. 164. Pl 18. fig. 5.

Adult Male. Plate LXXXIV. Fig. 1. Bill of ordinary length, straight, subulato-conical, depressed at the base, acute; upper mandible with the edges acute and overlapping, notched close to the end, the tip slightly declinate. Head rather large. Neck short, body ovate. Legs of ordinary length; tarsus slender, compressed, scutellate before, acute behind; toes free, scutellate; claws arched, compressed, acute. Plumage soft, blended, tufty. Basirostral bristles distinct. Wings short, much curved, the third quill longest. Tail longish, rounded, of twelve rounded feathers.

Bill bluish-black. Iris hazel. Feet greyish-blue. The general colour of the upper parts is bright blue, approaching to ultramarine, deeper on the head, and fading on the tail-coverts. Quills and primary coverts