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LAZULI FINCH. 



Fringilla Amcena, Bonap. 



PLATE CCCXCVIII. Male. 



The Lazuli Finch, one of the handsomest of its tribe, and allied to 

 the Indigo Bird, Fringilla cyanea, was added to our Fauna by Thomas 

 Say, who procured it in the course of Long's expedition already men- 

 tioned. A figure of the only specimen then obtained was given in the 

 continuation of Wilson's American Ornithology by the Prince of Mu- 

 siGNANO. It has been my good fortune to procure a fine pair from Dr 

 TowNSEND, who shot them on the Columbia River, on the 3d of June 

 1836, so that I have been enabled to represent the female, which has 

 not hitherto been figured, as well as the male. That enterprising na- 

 turalist has informed me, that " the Chinook Indians name this species 

 Tilkonapaooks, and that it is rather a common bird on the Colmnbia, but 

 is always shy and retiring in its habits, the female being very rarely 

 seen. It possesses lively and pleasing powers of song, which it pours 

 forth from the top branches of moderate-sized trees. Its nest, which 

 is usually placed in the willows along the margins of the streams, is 

 composed of small sticks, fine grasses, and cow or buffalo hair." 



A nest of this species presented to me by Mr Nuttall, who found 

 it on the Columbia River, is fastened between the stem and two branches 

 of a large fern, round which many of the fibres are woven. It is fun- 

 nel-shaped, six inches in length, three inches in breadth externally at 

 the mouth, from which it gradually tapers. Internally its diameter at 

 the mouth is two inches, and its depth three. It is composed of fibrous 

 lichens, mosses, decayed leaves and grasses, of coarse texture and rudely 

 interwoven. It is lined with finer fibres and a few horse hairs. 



The figure of the female will be seen in Plate CCCCXXIV, Fig. 1. 



Lazuli Finch, Fringilla aakena, Gh. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 61, 



pi. 6, fig. 4. 

 Fringilla amcena, Ck. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 106. 

 Lazuli Finch, Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 473. 



