LAZULI BUNTING 123 



fluttered their wings as she approached. The location note given 

 was a wheet, which was uttered once or several times and was often 

 given when they missed their grasp on a perch as they shifted their 

 position. Mostly they tended to stay in one place. They were fre- 

 quently seen to preen. At this time the body feathers were well 

 grown. The head and wings were dark gray, the back a lighter 

 gray, the breast reddish, the belly gray, and the bill yellow. The 

 wings showed two bars plainly. The head and neck still had gray 

 down and the tail was approximately 13^ inches long. About a week 

 later young were observed following the female closely and begging 

 for food. 



E. C. Kinsey's observations (letter, 1955) differ from these to some 

 extent. He states: "Our observations indicate that the male does not 

 feed the young in the nest; that the feeding is all done by the fe- 

 male.* * * However, the minute the young leave the nest, 

 whether because of being disturbed or naturally, the male takes over 

 and is the principal feeder. Almost immediately the female solicits 

 the male's attention and a new nest is started, usually in the immedi- 

 ate vicinity of the old nest. The male leads the brood of fledglings 

 off into the thicket during the day but returns to the old nesting site 

 in the evening. The young, so far as I have been able to observe, 

 do not return to the nest once thay have left it. The male's terri- 

 torial song during the time he is feeding the fledghngs continues 

 unabated." 



The same observer gives the only information available on the num- 

 ber of broods. "Our experience indicates that two broods are the usual 

 order although this spring, viz 1955, * * *. I know of one pair that 

 reared three broods. In past years I have felt certain in other loca- 

 tions and with other pairs that three broods are not unusual, at least 

 in the northern San Francisco Bay area." 



Plumages. — R. Ridgway (1901) describes the adult male as: Head, 

 neck, rump, and upper tail coverts Hght cerulean or turquoise blue, 

 changing to light greenish blue (Nile blue) ; back, scapulars, and lesser 

 wing-coverts darker and (especially back) duller blue; lores blackish; 

 middle wing-coverts very broadly tipped with white, the greater 

 coverts more narrowly tipped with the same, forming two bands; 

 wings otherwise blackish, the greater coverts and remiges edged with 

 bluish; tail blackish, the rectrices edged with greenish blue; chest 

 tawny-ochraceous, this color extending farther backward laterally 

 than medially; abdomen, under tail-coverts, etc., white; maxilla 

 black; mandible (in Hfe) pale grayish blue, with black streaks on gonys; 

 iris brown; legs and feet black or dusky brown. 



Ridgway describes the adult female as: Above grayish brown, 

 passing into dull greenish blue, or much tinged with this color, on 



