BLUE OR METALLIC BLUE 499 



California Breeding Range : Below Boreal zone, nearly throughout the 



State. 

 Breeding Season : May and June. 

 Nest: Of fine strips of bark, small twigs, grasses ;^ lined with hair; 



placed in trees or bushes a few feet from the ground. 

 Sggs: 3 or 4 ; plain bluish white or light bluish green. Size 0.75 X 

 " 0.58. 



Although the Lazuli Bunting is found on the higher 

 Sierra Nevada, his best loved liaunts are the lower moun- 

 tain thickets and the chaparral-covered foot-hills. While 

 the showily pluniaged male flies through the open, from 

 tree-top to tree-top, his little brown mate keeps well 

 within the cover of the bushes, zigzagging her way 

 through the chaparral like a shy sparrow. From the 

 plains to the Pacific this species replaces the indigo 

 bunting of the East. 



The song of the Lazuli is loud, sweet, and merry, but 

 is chiefly remarkable for the fine enthusiasm of the 

 singer. Long after the other birds, worn out by family 

 cares, have ceased their music, this blithe " little boy 

 blue" carols his jolly roundelay from the top of a tall 

 tree as gayly as though there were no such thing as 

 work in the world. For this we love him. Yet snugly 

 hidden among the bushes is the cup-shaped nest, where 

 in the June days his mate brooded over the pretty nest- 

 lings, and where he was kept busy hunting bugs for the 

 hungry mouths ; and there may have been a second 

 brood to be looked after, as there often is in the Bunt- 

 ing family. At any rate, he has had his full share of 

 labor in nest-building, incubating, guarding, and feeding, 

 and has come out of it without losing one iota of en- 

 thusiasm in the joy of living. 



