498 LAND BIRDS 
young birds ever have done. There was scarcely a mo- 
ment when one or the other of the parents was not 
bending over the nest offering food to the wide-open 
yellow mouths of the offspring. For several days this 
was given entirely by regurgitation. The adults had a 
habit of flying down the caiion to their feeding grounds, 
about a hundred yards away, and I never succeeded in 
finding out what they brought back. Oftentimes what 
looked to be the gauzy wings of a dragonfly stuck out 
on one side of the bill; at other times the food looked 
like grasshoppers or crickets, but I cannot be sure what 
it was. When ten days old, the young were feathered 
in soft tints of grayish brown, with a hint of blue on 
head and shoulders. But the constant surveillance had 
made them uneasy; as soon as possible they escaped 
from it by disappearing from the locality the same day 
that the little ones flew from the nest, and a diligent 
search failed to discover their whereabouts. 
599. LAZULI BUNTING. — Cyanospiza ameena. 
Famity: The Finches, Sparrows, etc. 
Length: 5.00-6.25. 
Adult Male: Head, neck, and upper parts turquoise blue; the back 
darker and duller ; wings with two white bars; breast and sometimes 
sides washed with brownish ; remainder of under parts white. 
Adult Female: Upper parts grayish brown, with blue on rump; back 
more or less streaked ; wing-bars dull whitish; lower parts pale dull 
buffy, deeper on chest, and fading to white on belly and lower tail- 
coverts. 
Young: Similar to adult female, but without blue tinge on rump; chest 
and sides streaked. 
Geographical Distribution : Western United States, east to Great Plains 
and Kansas; south in winter to Western Mexico. 
