120 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUIM BULLETIN 23 7 paet i 



May 26 at his ranch 7 miles southwest of Kerrville and 55 miles 

 northwest of San Antonio, Tex. In southern Ellis County, Okla., 

 G. M. Sutton (1938) found a nest on May 26, 1937, with two eggs. 

 He found the species common along the Washita River near Cheyenne, 

 Roger Mills County, where it nested side by side with P. cyanea 

 and P. ciris. 



For Nevada R. Ridgeway (1877) reports two nests with eggs, one 

 on July 1, 1867, and another on July 4, 1868. A. J. van Rossem 

 (1936) collected three juveniles on July 19 and 20, 1932. At Prove, 

 Utah, H. W. Henshaw (1875) found nests "the latter part of July, 

 containing either young, or eggs just ready to hatch." In Colorado 

 R. B. Rockwell (1908) states that they breed "late in Jime and 

 July," while W. H. Bergtold (1917) reports them as nesting in 

 Chessman Park in Denver the last week in June of 1916. 



Breeding records for the Dakotas are scarce. Henry reports a 

 female carrying food on August 1, though he could not find the 

 nest. In Montana A. A. Saunders (1921) reports nest dates for the 

 State that include a nest with four eggs at Flathead Lake on July 22, 

 another one in which one egg hatched July 30, 1911, and a third 

 containing two lazuli eggs and one cowbird egg on June 15, 1910. 



In the Willamette Valley of Oregon G. W. GuUion (1951) has 

 breeding records from June 2 to August 25. Stanley Jewett found 

 nests June 17 and 20 in Multnomah County and June 8 in Umatilla 

 County. Patterson gives the dates of May 10 to Jime 8 for the 

 southern Cascades. At Fort Klamath J. C. Merrill (1888) reports 

 them as "breeding among the willows and manzanita bushes" begin- 

 ning late in May after their arrival about May 20. In central Oregon 

 A. Walker (1917) found nests on June 17, 1913, containing young. 



Dawson (1909) observed a nest in Yakima County, Wash., which 

 "was begun on the 19th of Jime and practically completed by the 

 afternoon of the following day, — this altho the first egg was not laid 

 until the 26th." J. R. King (1954) reports nesting dates for Whitman 

 County in Washington as June 1 to June 30 based on earliest and 

 latest dates for fresh completed clutches, or derived by extrapolation. 



Eggs. — ^The set of eggs laid by the lazuli bunting is usually four, but 

 occasionally only three and more rarely five. They are ovate, some- 

 times with a tendency toward short-ovate, and slightly glossy. The 

 eggs are very pale bluish-white, and unspotted. 



The measurements of 50 eggs average 18.7 by 13.6 millimeters, and 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 20.8 by 14.7, 18.8 by 

 15.2, 16.8 by 14.0, and 18.8 by 12.1 millimeters. 



Young. — F. L. Burns (1915) gives the incubation period of the lazuli 

 bunting as 12 days and (1921) the length of nestling life as 10 days. 

 This is based on W. I. Finley's record (1906) of a nest that contained 



