A BRILLIANT FINCH. 153 



therein taken refuge. The song is a pretty soft 

 warble, that comes in bursts, as if in joyous praise 

 of some unusually fortunate capture ; the singer 

 perching itself boldly on the top of a plant, to be 

 the more plainly heard by its companions. In early 

 spring the redpoles feed right-royally, the long 

 pollen-dusted catkins of the alder and hazel being 

 much relished. I never saw its nest, though I 

 repeatedly searched for it. They winter in small 

 flocks in Vancouver Island, at its southern 

 extremity. 



THE LAZULI FINCH (Cyanospiza amcena, 

 Baird).--This gaily-plumaged little bird, one of 

 the ' painted sparrows,' visits Vancouver Island 

 and British Columbia early in the summer, 

 arriving at the Island in May, and rather later 

 east of the Cascades. The colours of the male 

 are nearly as brilliant as the gemlike humming- 

 birds, the feathers having a similar metallic 

 lustre a brilliancy rendered the more con- 

 spicuous by contrast with the flowerless shrubs it 

 usually frequents. The song is feeble, and only 

 now and then indulged in by the male, to cheer 

 his more sombre partner during incubation. 



The nest is round, and open at the top, com- 

 posed of various materials turned and worked 

 together, lined with hair, and placed in a low 



