80 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 paet i 



Tyler also states that occasionally the grosbeak will nest in a peach 

 orchard, with the nest 8 to 12 feet above the ground. One nest was 

 fully 20 feet up, in a willow, "at the end of a small horizontal branch 

 the tip of which took an abrupt vertical turn and hung out over a 

 ditch full of water." Another nest at the end of a horizontal branch 

 of a poplar tree in a yard was about 15 feet up. The nests "are 

 well-made, light baskets of dry grass, weed stems and rootlets, lined 

 with black horse-hairs if such are obtainable." Always, in his ex- 

 perience, there was "either a piece of paper or a dry, paper-like leaf 

 woven into the framework somewhere." He adds, "sets of three 

 and four eggs are found in about equal numbers, the time ranging 

 from May 18 (1906) to June 23 (1901)." In a case of late nesting, 

 young were just out of the nest on July 15. 



Eggs.- — ^The measurements of 40 eggs average 22.0 by 16.5 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measm^e 24-9 by 15.2, 

 22.3 by 17.7, 20.0 by 16.1, and 20.1 by U.8 millimeters. 



Distribution 



Range. — Central California and west central Nevada to Baja 

 California and Guerrero. 



Breeding range. — The California blue grosbeak breeds from the 

 Great Valley and Inyo District of central California (Red Bluff, 

 Furance Creek) and central western Nevada (Esmeralda County) 

 south through southwestern California (Soledad Mission, Banning, 

 San Diego) to northwestern Baja California (San Quintln). 



Winter range. — Winters from southern Baja California (San Jose 

 del Cabo) and southern Sonora (lower Yaqui River) south to Guerrero 

 (Chilpancingo) . 



Egg dates. — California: 38 records, April 18 to July 12; 20 records, 

 May 22 to June 12. 



PASSERINA CYANEA (Linnaeus) 



Indigo Bunting 



PLATES 7, 8, AND 9 



ContriLuted by Wendell Taber and David W. Johnston 



Habits 



The usual breeding range of the indigo bunting includes southern 

 Canada and the eastern United States westward to Texas, Kansas, 

 and Manitoba. Sporadic nesting and summer occiu-rences have been 

 reported from a scattering of western states (A.O.U. Check-List, 1957). 

 It is typically a species of forest edges, weedy fields, roadsides, shrub- 

 lands, and brushy ravines. As Burleigh (1958) suggests, it is a bird of 



