VARIED BUNTING. 
600. Passerina versicolor. 51% inches. 
This beautiful species is less common than any others 
of the genus and has a very restricted range in the 
United States. The plumage of the male birds varies a 
great deal; that shown in the accompanying illustra- 
tion is from a, brightly colored specimen. They will 
average duller than this. These birds frequent thickets 
or brush-studded pasture land. Their song is described 
as weaker than that of the Indigo Bunting, but having 
much of the same character. 
Nest.—Built of grasses, bark and fine rootlets; a 
cup-shaped structure placed in forks of bushes, usually 
in tangled thickets. The three or four eggs cannot be 
distinguished from those of the last species. 
Range.—The Lower Rio Grande Valley in southern 
Texas. <A sub-species (pulchra) is also found in Lower 
California and southern Arizona. 
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