108 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paet i 



Don Bleitz (1958), reporting on the indigo bunting breeding in Los 

 Angeles County, Calif., found a male indigo mated mth a female 

 lazuli. The nest of this pair contained two bunting eggs and a cowbird 

 egg. The eggs later proved to be sterile. 



Why the indigo and painted buntings (P. ciris) do not hybridize is 

 something of a mystery. In certain parts of their breeding ranges 

 in the southeastern United States, as Norris (1963) points out, the 

 two species may be foimd in the same general area. Parmelee (1959) 

 sheds some light on this situation in southern Oklahoma: ''The 

 Indigo Bunting * * * was both scarce and local, and we found no 

 situation where it and ciris bred side by side, although conceivably 

 they do just that in parts of Marshall County. * * * there are 

 significant differences in the breeding behavior of the two species." 



Distribution 



Range. — Southern Canada (east of the Great Plains) to Panama, 

 Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. 



Breeding range. — The indigo bunting breeds from southwestern 

 South Dakota (Black Hills), southern Manitoba (Portage la Prairie, 

 HiQside Beach), northern Minnesota (Lake of the Woods and Cook 

 counties), western and southern Ontario (Fort William, North Bay), 

 southern Quebec (Blue Sea Lake, Montreal, Hatley), southern Maine 

 (Avon and Washington Counties), and southern New Brunswick (St. 

 John) south to western Kansas (Finney County), western Oklahoma 

 (Cheyenne) , south central and southeastern Texas (West Frio Canyon, 

 Galveston), southern Louisiana (Thibodaux), southern Alabama 

 (Fairhope), and northern Florida (Tallahassee, Gainesville); sporadi- 

 cally in Colorado (Morrison), southwestern Utah (Pine Valley Moun- 

 tains), Arizona (Oak Creek Canyon), and California (Los Angeles 

 County, mated ^'^dth Lazuli Bunting).* 



Winter range. — Winters from Jahsco (Atoyac), Guanajuato, San 

 Luis Potosi (Xilitla), Swan Island, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Jamaica 

 south throughout southern Mexico and Central America to central 

 Panama; casually south to Curagao and northern Venezuela (Sierra de 

 Perijd); and north to northwestern California (Ferndale), Texas, 

 Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, 

 District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. 



Casual records. — Casual west to Oregon (Fort Klamath), California 

 (Yolo County, Rialto, Carmel), and Baja California (Agua Caliente) 

 north to Alberta (Lake la Nonue), southern Saskatchewan (Estevan), 



*Hybridizes extensively with the Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, where 

 their ranges overlap in the Great Plains area. 



