THE LAZULI BUNTING. 165 



recalled by dull greenish blue of niiii]) and upper tail-coverts and by skirtings of 

 wing- and tail-feathers; middle and greater coverts tipped with light bufFy; 

 underparts washed with huffy, most strongly on chest and sides, fading to whitish 

 on belly and under tail-coverts. Young birds resemble the female but lack the 

 bluish-gray of rump and skirtings, and are usually more or less streaked below 

 on chest and sides. Length of adult male: 5.25-5.50 ( 133.3-139.7 ) : wing 2.87 

 ( 73 ) ; tail 2.0S ( 53 I : bill .39 (9.9) ; tarsus .67 ( 17 I. Female smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size; color pattern of male distinctive. — 

 female not so easy: in general distinguishable by a softness and unifcirmitv of the 

 grayish brown. 



Nesting. — Xcst: a loosely constructed, bulky structure made chiefly of dead 

 grasses and strips of .soft bark, with a heavy inner lining of hair; placed about 

 three feet up in fork of weed, bush or sapling; measures, outside, 4'4 inches 

 across by 3 in depth, inside, 2%. wide by i]/, deep. Eggs: 4, very jiale blue 

 unmarked or, rarely, dotted with reddish brown. Av. size .76.x .56 (19.3 x 14. 2). 

 Season: first week in June; one l)rood. 



General Range. — Western I'nited States from eastern border of (ireat 

 Plains to the F'acific (less common on Pacific slope) north to .southern British 

 Columbia (chiefly east of the Cascades) ; south, in winter, to Cape St. Lucas and 

 the N'alley of Mexico. 



Range in Washington. — Ccjnimon summer resident east of Cascade Moiui- 

 tains ; less common and of irregular distribution in the Pugct Sound region; 

 breeds in Cascades uj) to 3,000 feet. 



Migrations. — Spring: Yakima County May 5, 1906; Chelan .May 21, 1896. 



Authorities. — FFringilla anicrna, Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 64, 230 ; plates 

 398. 424. Cvanospi:;a amana Baird, Baird, Rep Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 

 505. T. C&S. D-. Ra. D-'. Ss'. Ss=. J. B. E. 



Specimens. — U. of W. P'. Prov. P.. E. 



ONE can .scarcely believe his eyes as this jewel flashes from a thicket, 

 crosses a space of common air, and disappears again all in a trice. Either 

 there has been some n])tical illusion, or Nature has grown careless to fling 

 her tiuquoises aboiu in such fashion. We must investigate. L'pon arrival, 

 .somewhere about the lolh of May, and before the return of his dun-colored 

 mate, the male Lazuli is quite conscious of his prominence in the landscape. 

 He avoids notice and goes bounding away if closely pressed; but love soon 

 makes him bold, and he will pursue the object of his affections into the very 

 thicket where you stand. Then, wdiile the female lurUs timidly within, he 

 mounts a .spray and yields an outburst of nuisic. ])iercing and earnest, if not 

 too sweet. We see that his blue is deep azure, or turquoise, rather than that of 

 the lapis lazuli from which he is named. The red of his breast is nearly that 

 of the Robin's, while the pure white of the remaining underparts completes 

 a i)atriotic study in red, white, and blue. The female .shows something of 

 the color pattern of her mate, with the important exception that dull brown 

 supplants the royal blue of head and back. .After all. then, thev are fitted 



