FBINGILLIDJE : FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPABEOWS, ETC. 391 



Analysis of Species. 



<f ricli blue, intense red and golden-green ; $ greenisli and yellow. Southern ciris 292 



if purplish-blue, dusky and reddish. $ brown. Southwestern versicolor 293 



(f lazuli-blue and white, the breast brown ; $ brown and whitish. WeBtem armena 294 



(/ indigo-bluej ? brown. Eastern cycmea 295 



393. P. ci'ris. (Gr. Keipis, keiris, name of a bird into which Soylla, daughter of Nisus, was trans- 

 formed.) Painted Finch. Painted Bunting. Nonpareil. Pope. ,J, adult: Crown and 

 hind neck and sides of head and neck rich blue ; back and scapulars beautiful golden-green ; 

 eyelids, rump, and entire under parts intense vermilion -red; wings dusky, glossed with green 

 and reddish ; tail dusky reddish. Bill dark horn-color ; feet dark brown. Size of C. amcena; 

 wing 3.75 ; tail 2.25, a little emarginate. 9 : Above, plain yellowish-green, nearly uniform, this 

 color glossing the dusky wings and tail; below, yellowish; bUl brownish, pale below; thus 

 quite different from the brown ? 9 of all the following species. Young ^ at first like 9 i 

 acquiring the red and blue with every possible gradation between the colors of the two sexes. 

 South Atlantic and Gulf States, abundant ; up the coast to Carolina, and in the interior to 

 Illinois ; Texas and Mexico. An exquisite little creature of matchless hues, well named the 

 "incomparable"; a fair songster, and a favorite cage-bird in Louisiana. Nest in bushes, 

 hedges and low trees ; eggs pearly white, speckled with reddish and purplish browns. 



393. P. versi'color. (Lat. versicolor, various in color ; verto, I turn ; color, color.) Purple 

 Painted Pinch. Varied Bunting. Western Nonpareil. Prusiano. ^, adult: Hind 

 head, throat, and fore breast brownish-red or claret-color, the former sometimes scarlet ; hind 

 neck and middle of back similar, but more obscured ; fore-part of crown purplish-red ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts purplish-blue ; below, from the breast, and the wings and tail, dusky, tinged 

 or glossed with purplish ; concealed white in feathers of side of rump ; lores and circumrostral 

 feathers black. Bill bom-bluish, paler below, stouter than in the other species, with vei-y 

 convex culmen and concave cutting edge of upper mandible. Feet dark. The versicoloration 

 is difficult to describe ; the general aspect is that of a purplish-dusky bird, redder or bluer here 

 and there. Size of the others. 9 plain brown above, whitey-brown below, like amcena and 

 (jyanea; no whitish wing-bars; no black stripe on gonys; concealed white on sides of rump; 

 bill stout. Lower California and Mexico, N- to U. S. border, especially in the Rio Gi'ande 

 Valley, where common in some localities. (Accidental in Michigan.) 



394. P. amoe'na. (Lat. amcena, delightful, charming, dressy.) Lazuli Painted Finch. ^, 

 adult : Head and neck all around, entire upper parts, and lining of wings, rich azure or lapis- 

 lazuli blue, more or less obscured on the middle of the back ; the lores black. Below, from the 

 blue neck, chestnut-brown, changing to white on the belly and orissum. A firm white wing- 

 bar across ends of the median coverts, and usually another weaker one across tips of greater 

 coverts. Wings and tail dusky, glossed with blue. Bill and feet bluish-black. Length 5.25- 

 5.50; extent 8.00-8.50; wing 2.75-3.00; tail 2.25-3.50; bUl 0.37; tarsus 0.65. 9, adult: 

 Above, flaxen -fbrown, nearly uniform, but with slightly darker centres of the feathers, and some- 

 times a faint bluish gloss. Below, buffy or brownish-white, most colored on the breast, palest 

 on throat and belly. Wings and tail fuscous, with faint bluish edgings usually, crossed with two 

 decided brownish-white bars, — the chief distinction from 9 eyanea. $ , young : Like the 9 ; 



■ when changing, patched with brown and blue; when very young, $ 9 somewhat streaky, 

 especially on under parts. Replacing P. eyanea from the Plains to the Pacific, common in 

 suitable places ; habits, nest, and eggs the same. 



395. P. cya'nea. (Lat. eyanea, Gr. Kvaveos, kucmeos, dark blue. Fig. 253.) Indigo Painted 

 Finch. Indigo-bird. Adult $ : Indigo-blue, intense and constant on the head, glancing 

 greenish with different lights on other parts ; wings and tail blackish, glossed with greenish- 

 blue; feathers around base of biU black ; bill dark, above, rather paler below, with a curious 

 black stripe along the gonys. 9 '■ Above, plain warm brown, below whitey-brown, obsoletely 

 streaky on the breast and sides; wing-coverts and inner quiUs pale-edged, but not whitish; 



