42 WESTERN BLUE BIRD. 



beetle or busy insect is no sooner seen than snatched up by our still 

 watchful songster, who resumes his wonted perch, to be again inter- 

 rupted by the cares of providing a subsistence ; or, reiterating his 

 melody, strives to drown the song of some neighbouring rival by 

 tender strains and more earnest endeavours. He appears also equally 

 solicitous with our common species to shew his affection for his 

 mate, whom he constantly accompanies, feeds, and caresses, with an 

 ardour of affection seldom rivalled. His song is more varied, sweet 

 and tender than that of the common Sialia, and very different in 

 many of its expressions. In the small rocky prairies of the Columbia, 

 near its bank, where I first heard and saw this species, they were ex- 

 ceedingly shy, probably in consequence of the presence of birds of prey, 

 which prowled around, and it was with difficulty that we got sight of 

 them, but afterwards, in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, in Upper Cali- 

 fornia, I saw them in considerable numbers, and very familiar, making 

 at this time (April) their nests in the knot-holes of the oaks which 

 abound in the neighbouring plains. We first met a flock of young birds 

 alone, in the winter, near to Fort Vancouver, flitting through the tall 

 fir trees, like so many timorous and silent winter passengers. These 

 had so much the appearance of young of the common species, that for 

 some time we paid little attention to them ; but their silence, the ab- 

 sence of the usual complaints of t shaye vit, &c., and at length their dif- 

 ferent notes, convinced me of their being distinct, previous to any exa- 

 mination of their plumage. This species, unlike Sialia ardica, does 

 not extend to the mountains, but seems constantly to affect similar si- 

 tuations with our common kind, along the coast of the Pacific, as oiirs 

 does along that of the Atlantic." 



I have given figures of both the male and the female in their spring 

 dress. 



Sialia occid'Entai.is, Western elite bihd, Toiensend, Journal of Acad, of Nat. 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. vii. p. 188. 



Adult Male in summer. Plate CCCXCIII. Fig. 4. 



This species in size and form, as well as in colour, is very similar 

 to the Common Blue Bird. Its bill is of ordinary length, nearly straight, 

 broader than high at the base, compressed toward the end ; upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line straight and a little declinate at the base, 

 convex toward the end, the ridge narrow, the sides convex toward the 



