FRINGILLID.E — THE FINCHES. g5 



it in Long's expedition. It was ob.served, tliough rarely, along tlic hank.s of 

 the Arkansas Hiver during tlie summer months, as far as the base of tlio 

 Kocky Monntaius. It \vas said to frequent the l)ushy valleys, keeping much 

 in the grass, after its food, and seldom aligliting on either trees or shrubs. 



Townsend, who found this rather a common bird on the Columbia, re- 

 garded 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 npper branches of low trees. Its nests were usually fonnd placed in 

 willows along the margins of streams, and were composed of small sticks, 

 fine grasses, and buflalo-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 dis- 

 tributed tln-onghout 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 undistinguishalile but for the fact 

 that in the ammna 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 diies not ajijiear 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 mate- 

 rials worked together, lined witli hair, and placed in a low bush, usually by 

 the side of a stream. 



Tlie Lazuli Finch was met with in large numbers, and many of their nests 

 procured, by Mr. Xantus, in the neigliborhood 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, duiing tlie sunnner. It arrives at San 

 Diego, according to Dr. Cooper, about April 22, and remains there until Oc- 

 tober. A male bird, kept in a cage over winter, was Ibund to retain its blue 

 plumage. It is a fa\'orite 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 fre- 

 quently sings his lively notes from the top of some bush or tree, continuing 



