490 ORNITHOLOGY. 



sippi Valley which include it, while on the Atlantic coast it is more or less 

 common, locally, north to New Jersey, having even been taken in the 

 eastern portion of Maine! Its distribution seems, therefore, not to be gov- 

 erned strictly by climatic conditions, but the facts adduced rather seem to 

 indicate a somewhat littoral range for the species. 



At Sacramento this species was found in the same localities with 

 Cyanospiza amcena, it being as characteristic of the edges of the copses of 

 )'Oung cotton-woods as was Hedymeles melanocephalus of the willow thickets. 



List of specimens. 



18, 19, nest.s ami cgg.s (3); Sacrameuto, California, June 11, 1867. 



20, 9 ad. (parent Of No. 18); Sacramento, California, June 11, 18G7. 7— 10-J— 

 3J — 2}| — § — ]l — 2| — li. Upper mandible, dark blui-sli born-color, lower light, some- 

 what lilaceou.s, ashy- white; iris, hazel; tarsi and toes, horn-color. 



44, (? ad.; Sacramento, June 17, 18(37. 7i — 11.^ — 3§ — 3^ — | — § — 3 — U. Upper 

 mandible blackish-slate, lower light plumbeous-blue; iris, hazel; tarsi and toes, plum- 

 beousbrown. 



51, uest and eggs (3); Sacramento, California, June 18, 1867. 



82, nest and eggs (3); Sacramento, California, June 24, 1867. 



91, nest and eggs (3); Sacramento, California, June 29, 1867. 



Nests all similarly situated, being placed about six feet from ground, in small 

 cotton-woods, in edge of copse. 



Cyanospiza amcena. 



Lazuli Bunting. 



Emheriza amcena, Say, Long's Exped., 11, 1823, 47. 



Cyanospiza amcena, Baird, B. N. Am., 1858, 504 ; Cat. N. Am. B., 1859, No. 386.— 

 Cooper, Orn. Cal., 1, 1870, 233.— CoUES, Key, 1872,149; Check List, 1873, 

 No. 198; B. N.W., 1874, 170.— B. B. & It., Hist. N. Am. B., H, 1874, 84, pi. 

 XXX, figs. 11, 12.— Hensiiaw, 1875, 300. 



This pretty little Bunting was a very common species in all the fertile 

 valleys, as well as i« the lower canons of the mountains, its range being 

 co-extensive with that of Hedymeles melanocephalus. Like its eastern con- 

 gener, C. cyanea, of which it is a perfect counterpart in habits, manners, and 

 notes, it frequents bushy places oidy ; but it avoids the sage-brush tracts, 

 and resorts to the more thrifty shrubbery in the vicinity of the streams. 



List of specimens. 



9, nest and egg (1); Sacramento, California, June 8, 1867. Nest on extremity of 

 drooping branch of small oak, in grove, about four feet from ground. 



