126 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 pakt i 



He flew 12 feet up in the oak, suspending himself with his body vertical 

 and his wings beating as he pulled something from the lower side ot 

 an oak leaf; he then dropped down and lit on a twig 2 feet below. 

 Twice more he flew up to pluck objects from the under side of the 

 oak leaves. He then flew out horizontally and was seen to be pacing a 

 large moth, probably a geometrid, which he could have overtaken 

 with ease, but he seemed to have trouble slowing down enough to 

 keep 8 to 10 inches behind it. When the moth landed on an oak leaf 

 the bunting turned and flew to the oak at a faster pace. 



Behavior. — On their spring migration the lazuli buntings may be 

 associated with other species. On May 2, at Twenty-nine Palms, 

 Calif., Frances Carter (1937) observed several lazulis start up from 

 deep grass with a flock of chipping sparrows. This association was 

 regularly noted the rest of that year, though no chipping sparrows 

 were seen the following year. This association with chipping sparrows 

 was also noticed by Joseph Grinnell on the fog-swept and bald- 

 topped hills of Humboldt County, Calif., in June. H. S. Swarth 

 (1904) observed that in the spring migration in the Huachuca Moun- 

 tains of Arizona the lazulis "were generally in mixed flocks of migrating 

 warblers, vireos, etc. and fed with them in the tree tops rather than 

 on or near the ground as they usually do." 



E. C. Kinsey (1934) states that lazuli buntings are devoted mates 

 and parents. He also comments that "male lazulis are very pug- 

 nacious and defend the nesting precincts vigorously. This is particu- 

 larly true with the first brood; it is not always true with the second 

 and third broods." 



Dawson (1909) has this to say about the female: "Amoena means 

 pleasant, but the female amenity is anything else, when her fancied 

 rights of maternity are assailed. Her vocabulary is limited, to be 

 sure, to a single note, but her repeated chip is expressive of all words 

 in dis from distrust to distress and violent disapprobation." 



When J. K. Jensen (1923) approached a nest, the female left it 

 "but kept fluttering among the branches uttering sharp 'chips' and 

 immediately the male arrived. * * *" 



A possible case of polygamy and hybridization is also reported by 

 Youngworth as foUows: "During the first week of June, 1935, the 

 writer was working on a waterfowl survey in the Waubay Lakes 

 region in Day County, South Dakota, and it was here near Spring 

 Lake that a male lazuli bunting was seen on several successive days. 

 The strange thing, however, was the fact that the bird was consorting 

 with two females. One female was an indigo bunting and the other 

 a lazuli bunting. On every occasion when the male lazuli bunting 

 was flushed the two females would also flush. The writer was sorry 



