The Painted Bunting {Passenna ciHs) 



By Gerard Alan Abbott 



Length : 5^ inches. 



Range : South Atlantic and Gulf States to Western Texas, north to North 

 Carolina and Illinois and south to Panama. 



This beautiful bird is often called by the appropriate peerless name Non- 

 pareil. 



Without any exception, these are the most gaudily plumaged North Amer- 

 ican birds, but their colors have a harshness of contrast that renders them far 

 less pleasing to the eye than many others of our birds. They are often caged, 

 but in confinement soon lose the natural brilliancy of their plumage. Like the 

 Indigo Bunting, they are found in thickets and hedges : their habits seem to be 

 precisely like those of the last species. 



Its song is similar to that of the Indigo, but lacking the brilliancy. 



The nest is made of grasses, leaves, strips of bark and rootlets, compactly 

 compressed and woven together, situated at low elevations in thickets and low 

 bushes. The eggs are whitish, specked and blotched with reddish brown. 



In the South they are favorite cage birds and readily become reconciled 

 to small quarters. Like the Indigo Bunting the male is a strikingly colored 

 bird, but the plumage of the female is plain olive green. One variety spends 

 the winter in Florida but does not seek a more northerly climate until about May. 



In their winter haunts they are shy and retiring, remaining in dense shrub- 

 bery where the country is not under cultivation. Often while singing the males 

 remain concealed among the foliage and are as difficult to observe as is our 

 yellow-breasted chat. Their song may be favorably compared with that of the 

 Indigo Bunting. 



The birds live chiefly upon seeds and berries. Until the young leave the 

 nest, they are fed upon insects and their larvse. The nests are rather loosely 

 constructed of leaves and stems of grass and are lined with the same material. 

 Low bushes and young trees are the favorite nesting sites, although the birds 

 are sometimes found breeding in the high timber, several nesting at times in a 

 single tree. 



Four eggs are laid in May and a second brood is frequently reared in July. 



Lazuli Bunting {Passerma amoena) 



Length, from 5^4 to 5j/2 inches. Male blue above, breast brownish ; wing 

 bars white. Female brownish. 



Range: Breeds from southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, south- 

 eastern Saskatchewan and western North Dakota to southern California and 

 southwestern Texas ; winters in Mexico. 



The lazuli finch is a near relative of the indigo bunting and the nonpareil, 



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