114 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part i 



As in eastern Oregon, this species is common everywhere in eastern 

 Washington except in the arid sagebrush region. L. R. Dice (1918a) 

 observed it in the cottonwoods and ^villows along the Touchet River 

 and in the town of Walla Walla. P. Dumas (1950) found it about 

 equally common in the swales and draws of the prairie where a thick 

 shrub layer of rose, snowberry, and serviceberry occur with scattered 

 thorn trees, and in the dense chaparral brushland of ninebark, spirea, 

 and ocean spray. In central Washington, C. H. Kennedj^ (1914) 

 mentions the lazuli bunting as one of the species that is moving from 

 the riverside thickets into irrigated land. In the northwestern part 

 of the State, T. D. Burleigh (1929-1930) reports it as "a rather 

 scarce summer resident in underbrush bordering open fields." 



According to Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874b), Lord states 

 that the lazuli bunting visits Vancouver Island and British Columbia 

 early in the summer, arriving at the island in May and rather later 

 east of the Cascades. More recently (A, Brooks, 1917; A. Brooks 

 and H. S. Swarth, 1925; J. A. Munro, 1950), it has been reported as a 

 moderately common summer visitant to the lowlands of southern 

 British Columbia, but as unusual on Vancouver Island. The northern- 

 most record is that of S. N. Rhoads (189.3) at Bonaparte. The 

 species also occurs in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. 



The lazuli bunting has been affected by the occupany of its range 

 by the white man. W. K. Fisher (1902) lists it as a species that 

 has rapidly invaded the lumbered areas in the vicinity of Humboldt 

 Bay on the coast of northern California. Originally he described it 

 as restricted to the narrow river vallcj^s open to the coast belt. In 

 1902 it had a much wider distribution. It has also spread into the 

 irrigated parts of Colorado and Washington and other States where 

 the water has changed sagebrush or other unsuitable habitats into 

 suitable ones. Modification in distribution in the other direction has 

 also been observed. J. Grinnell (1914a) describes their coming down 

 Strawberry Canyon as far as Budd Hall on the Berkeley campus in 

 1907, but having been seen only in the upper parts of the canyon 

 a few years later. E. C. Kinsey writes that "several pairs which 

 always nested in our canyon on the southern slopes have moved 

 out completely since the war period brought in a large influx of new 

 residents. It can not seem to adapt itself to a populous human 

 environment." 



An actual extension of the range of this species is indicated by 

 W. Youngworth (1935) who found a male lazuli bunting consorting 

 with a female lazuli and a female indigo bunting "approximately 

 thirty miles from the border lines of both Minnesota and North 

 Dakota. The record is interestmg in that it shows that previous 

 reports of the lazuli bunting in Iowa and Minnesota were not acci- 



