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 canon 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 amoena. 

 Family : 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. 



