THE WESTERN BLUEBIRD. 255 



blue is restricted to flight- feather^ and rectrices, tliat i)f the male being lirighter 

 and bluer, that of the female duller and greener. In both sexes the back and 

 scapular areas are brownish heavily and sharjily streaked with white and the 

 breast (juguluni, sides of breast, and sides) is dark sepia brown so heavily 

 streaked with white as to appear "skeletonized." Length of adults 6.50-7.00 

 (165-177.S) ; wing 4.13 ( 105) : tail 2.80 ( 71) : bill .4<) ( 12.5) ; tarsus .85 (21.5). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size : rich blue and chestnut coloring of 

 male ; darker blue ciiloration of wings in female distinctive as compared with that 

 of .S". ciirnicoidcs. 



Nesting. — Nest: in cavities, natural or artificial, old woodpecker holes, hollow 

 trees, stumps, posts, bird-boxes, etc., lined with grasses and, occasionally, string, 

 feathers and the like. Eggs: 4-6. uniform pale blue. Av. size, .82 x .62 ( 20.8 x 

 15.7). Season: May-July; two broods. 



General Range. — I'acific coast district from Los Angeles County, California, 

 to British Columbia, extending irregularly eastward in Oregon, Washington and 

 British Columbia, and to Idaho and western Montana ; south irregularly in winter 

 as far as San Pedro Martir Mountains, L. C. 



Range in Washington. — Summer resident, of general distribution west of 

 the Cascades, rare and local distribution (chiefly in lieavilv timbered sections) east 

 of the mountains ; casually resident in winter. 



Migrations. — Spring: c. i\Iarch i: East-side: Chelan, Alarch 9, 1896: Con- 

 connully, March 15, 1896; West-side: Seattle, March 6, 1889: March 5, 1891 ; 

 Tacoma, Feb. 25, 1905. Fall: October. 



Authorities. — Sialia occideiitalis, Townsend, journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 

 \V,1. All. pt. TI. 1837, 188. C&S. L-. Rh. !)>. Kb. Ra. D-\ Kk. J. B. E. 



Specimens. — U. of \\'. Prov. B. BN. 



MIV-MIU-MIU — mute }-ou are, nr next thing to it, you naughtx- little 

 beauties! \Vhy don't you sing, as do _\-our cousins across the Rockies? You 

 bring spring witli you, but you do not come shifting your "light load of song 

 from post to post along the cheerless fence." Is vour beaut\', then, so burden- 

 some that you find it task enough to shift that? 



Alack-a-day! our Bluebird does not sing! You see, he comes from 

 Mexican stock, Sialia mcricana. and since we will not let him talk Spanish, or 

 Aztecan, or Zampeyan, he flits about silent in seven languages- Er — but — 

 what's this? Can we be mistaken? Here is what Dr. J. K. Townsend^ says 

 of the AVestern Bluebird : "Common on the Columbia River in the spring. 

 It arri\-es from the south earlv in .April, and about the first week in May com- 

 mences building. * * * \ flock of eight or ten of these birds visited the 

 British fort on the Columbia, on a fine day in the \A'inter of 1835. They con- 

 fined themselves chiefly to the fences, occasionally flying to the ground and 

 scratching among the snow for minute insects, the fragments of which were 

 found in the stomachs of several which I killed. After procuring an insect 



Narrative (1839), p. 344. 



