THE WESTERN BLUEBIRD. 255 



blue is restricted to flight-tcatliers ami rcctrices, that of the male being brighter 

 and bluer, that of the female duller and greener. In both sexes the back and 

 scapular areas are brownish heavily and sharply streaked with white and the 

 breast (jugulum, sides of breast, and sides) is dark sepia brown so heavily 

 streaked with white as to appear "skeletonized." L.ength of adults 6.50-7.CX) 

 ( 165-177.8) : wing 4.13 ( 105) ; tail 2.80 (71 ) : bill .49 (12.5) ; tarsus .85 (21.5). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; rich blue and chestnut coloring of 

 male; darker blue coloration of wings in female distinctive as com])ared with that 

 of S. curriicoidcs. 



Nesting. — Nest: in cavities, natural or artificial, old woodjiecker holes, hollow 

 trees, stumps, posts, bird-boxes, etc., lined with grasses and, occasionally, string, 

 feathers and the like. Eggs: 4-6, uniform pale blue. Av. size, .82 x .62 ( 20.8 x 

 15.7). Season: Alay-July; two broods. 



General Range. — Pacific coast district from Los Angeles County. California, 

 to British Columbia, extending irregularly eastward in Oregon, Washington and 

 British Columbia, and to Idaho and western j\lontana ; south irregularly in winter 

 as far as San Pedro Martir Mountains, L. C. 



Range in Washington. — Summer resident, of general distribution west of 

 the Cascades, rare and local distribution (chiefly in heavily timbered sections) east 

 of the ninnntains ; casually resident in winter. 



Migrations. — Spring: c. March i; East-sitle : Chelan, Alarch g. 1896: Con- 

 connully, March 15, 1896; West-side: Seattle. March 6. 1889; March 5, 1891 : 

 Tacoma, Feb. 25, 1905. Fall: October. 



Authorities. — Sialia occidentalis, Townsend, Tourn. .Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 

 \'o]. \1I. pt. II. 1837, 188. Cc^S. L'. Rh. D'. Kb. Ra. D-\ Kk. J. B. E. 



Specimens. — l^. of W. Prov. I!. BN. 



MIL'-MW-MIU — mute yott are, or next thing to it. you naught\- little 

 beauties! Why don't you sing, as do your cousins across the Rockies? You 

 bring spring witli you, but you do not come shifting your "light load of song 

 from ixjst to post along the cheerless fence." Is your beauty, then, so l)ur<len- 

 some that you find it task enough to shift that? 



Alack-a-day! our Bluebird does not sing! You sec, he conies from 

 Mexican stock, Sialia mexicana. and since we will not let him talk Spanish, or 

 Aztecan, or Zampeyan, he flits about silent in seven languages Er — but — 

 what's this? Can we be mistaken? Here is what Dr. ]. K. Townsend^ says 

 of the Western Bluebird: "Common on the Culunibia River in the spring. 

 It arrives from the south early in April, and about the first V'eek in May com- 

 mences building. * * * \ flock of eight or ten of these birds visited the 

 British fort on the Columbia, on a fine day in tlie winter of 1835. They con- 

 fined themselves chiefly to the fences, occasionally llying to the ground and 

 scratching among the snow for minute insects, the fragments of which were 

 found in the stomachs of several which I killed. After ])rocuring an insect 



.1. N.irr.ntive 0839), p. 344. 



