48 



NEBRASKA ORNITHOLOGISTS UNION 



efEorts and many wasted plates, they were induced to perch upon a 

 stump for the fraction of a second while a single snapshot was taken. 

 A second snap was just in time to catch a streak showing- the direction 

 in which they had taken their flight. 



NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF THE BLUE GEOS- 

 BEAK IN NEBRASKA 



MYEON H. SWENK, LINCOLN 



Although it is a most interesting and quite widely distributed bird, 

 very little has been written in regard to the Blue Grosbeak, Guiraca 

 cmrnlea (Linn.). Typically, it is a species of the southeastern United 

 States, but it ranges northward to southern Pennsylvania, southern 

 Illinois, and north central Nebraska, and accidentally even to New 

 England and Canada, and westward to Colorado and western Texas. 

 In mnter it extends south to Cuba and southern Mexico. In the western 

 and southwestern United States it is replaced by a slightly different 

 subspecies, Guiraca ccerulea lasula (Lesson), which ranges from southern 

 Utah and Nevada, and California, east to Colorado, Western Kansas and 

 Texas, and south to southern Mexico, and in winter even to southern 

 Costa Rica. This w^estern form has also been reported from Nebraska, 

 but only from the southwest corner. Although no specimens have been 

 examined to prove the contention, its occurrence there is quite probable, 

 for one or the other form is known to be a common bird in that region. 

 The eastern form breeds throughout its United States range, but no- 

 where can it be considered a very abundant bird. 



In Nebraska the eastern form extends locally over at least the eastern 

 half of the state. Breeding records from Red Cloud on July 2, and from 

 Broken Bow on July 8, 1893, are accredited to A. K. Fisher, and it is a 

 very common summer resident in the Niobrara valley as far west as 

 Brown County, the specimens from Kennedy and Long Pine referred 

 to by Rev. Mr. Bates (Second Proc. N. O. U., p. 75) also proving to be the 

 eastern form. In eastern Kansas it breeds quite commonh^ In the 



