84 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



had evidently taken from the ties of our grapevines. Each year the nest 

 was repaired with the same material. Once only they had two broods in one 

 season. The second brood was not hatched out until September, and the 

 family was not ready to migrate until after nearly all its kindred had assem- 

 bled and gone. This nest, though principally made of bare matting, was 

 very neatly and thoroughly lined with hair. Other nests are made of coarse 

 grasses and sedges, and all are usually lined in a similar maimer. 



Audubon and Wilson describe the eggs of this bird as blue, with purplish 

 spots at the larger end. All that I have ever seen are white, with a slight 

 tinge of greenish or blue, and unspotted. I have never been able to meet 

 with a spotted egg of this bird, the identification of which was beyond 

 suspicion. They are of a rounded-oval shape, one side is only a little more 

 pointed than the other. They measure .75 of an inch in length by .58 in 

 breadth. They resemble the eggs of C. amoina, but are smaller, and are not 

 so deeply tinged with blue. 



Cyanospiza amoena, Baird. 



LAZULI FINCH. 



Emberiza ammna, Say, Long's Exped. II, 18'23, 47. Fringilla (Spiza) amcena, BoNAP. 

 Am. Orn. I, 1825, 61, pi. vi, f. 5. Fringilla amcena, AuD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 64, 

 230, pis. cccxcviii and ccccxxiv. Spiza amosTia, BoNAP. List, 1838. — AuD. Syn. 

 1839, 109. —Ib. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 100, pi. clxxi. — Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 

 283. — Heerm. X, s, 46. Cyanospiza afnoena, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 504. — 

 Cooper & Suckley, 205. — Cooper, Orn. CaL I, 233. 



Sp. Char. 



Male. Upper parts generally, with the head and neck all round, greenish- 

 blue ; the interscapular region darker. Upper part 

 of breast pale brownish-chestnut extending along 

 the sides and separated from the blue of the throat 

 by a faint white crescent ; I'est of under parts and 

 axillars white. A white patch on the middle 

 wing-coverts, and an obscurely indicated white 

 band across the ends of the greater coverts. Loral 

 region black. Length, about 5.50 ; wing, 3.90 ; 

 tail, 2.60. 



Female. Brown above, tinged with blue on rump 

 and tail ; whitish beneath, tinged with buff on the 

 breast and throat ; faint white bands on wings. 



Hab. High Central Plains to the Pacific. 



Cyanospiza amcena. 



This species is about the size of C. 

 cyanea ; the bill exactly similar. The 

 species are scarcely 



females of the two 

 distinguishable, except by the faint traces of one or two white bands on the 

 wings in amcena. Sometimes both the throat and the upper part of the 

 breast are tinged with pale brownish-buff. 



Habits. The Lazuli Finch was first obtained by Mr. Say, who met with 



