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



rump and upper tail-coverts, the back sometimes narrowly and indis- 

 tinctly streaked with dusky, the remiges and rectrices edged with 

 dull greenish blue, the middle and greater wing-coverts tipped with 

 buffy or buffy whitish; anterior and lateral under parts dull buffy, 

 deepest on chest; abdomen and under tail-coverts white or buffy 

 white. 



He states that the young are: Similar to adult female but rump 

 and upper tail-coverts light brown, without bluish or greenish tinge, 

 and usually with chest and sides narrowly and indistinctly streaked. 

 Immature males have the blue, especially on the upper parts, more or 

 less clouded or overlaid by cinnamon brown. 



E. C. Kinsey (letter, 1955) reports that "the males have a partial 

 eclipes of their bright cerulean blue color. The young and immatures 

 resemble the female except that the blue wash on the rump is not so 

 pronounced. Our young aviary birds come into fidl male plumage 

 the following spring although I have seen the change retarded until 

 summer or fall of the second year. This could be the result of cap- 

 tivity." 



H. S. Swarth (1904) reports taking an adult male August 21 that 

 had renewed many of the feathers of the head and back, but elsewhere 

 retained almost entirely the old worn breeding plumage. A female 

 taken August 11 had almost entirely renewed the plumage of the upper 

 parts and had many new feathers scattered over the throat, breast, 

 and sides. 



W. Brewster (1862a) reports an unusual male specimen taken at 

 Tucson that had "the blue almost completely obscured by rufous, 

 which forms a broad tipping on all the feathers of the upper parts. 

 The throat, however, remains nearly pure blue." 



Another male seen June 8 in the chaparral belt of the Sierras above 

 Springville, Tulare County, Calif., by myself and a number of other 

 observers lacked the usual band of chestnut on the breast. The blue 

 of the throat continued uninterrupted into this region and continued 

 ventrally for the usual distance of the reddish band. 



Food. — From an analysis of 36 specimens, mostly from California 

 with 16 taken in the spring and 30 in the summer, A. C. Martin, 

 H. S. Zim, and A. L. Nelson (1951) report that the food of the lazuli 

 bunting consists of 64 percent animal food in the spring and 53 per- 

 cent in the summer. "Grasshoppers, caterpillars, and beetles, plus 

 a goodly number of true bugs, bees and ants are the main animal 

 items * * * seeds of weedy plants constitute more than one-third of 

 the sprmg and summer food." Of the plant foods wild oats makes 

 up 10 to 25 percent, minerslettuce 5 to 10 percent, and canarygrass 

 2 to 5 percent. In the spring, annual bluegrass constitutes 2 to 5 

 percent, and in the summer, needlegrass, 5 to 10 percent. Small 



