BIBDS OF NOETH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 585 



duller blue; lores blackish; middle wing-co\'erts very broadly tipped 

 with white, the greater coverts more narro"s\'ly tipped with the same, 

 forming two bands; wings otherwise blackish, the greater coverts and 

 remiges edged with bluish; tail blackish, the rectrices edged with 

 greenish blue; chest tawny-ochraceous, this color extending farther 

 backward laterall}' than medially; abdomen, under tail-coverts, etc., 

 white; maxilla black; mandible (in life) pale grayish blue, with black 

 streak on gonys; iris brown; legs and feet black or dusky brown; 

 length (skins), 12Y.25-140.72 (133.10); wing, 70.61-76.45 (73.41); tail, 

 52.58-57.66 (55.37); exposed culmen, 9.91-10.41 (10.16); depth of bill 

 at base, 7.37-7.62 (7.49); tarsus, 16.26-17.78 (17.27); middle toe, 

 ' 12.19-13.21 (12.70).^ 



Adult female. — Above grayish brown, passing into dull greenish 

 blue, or much tinged with this color, on rump and upper taiI-co\'erts, 

 the back sometimes narrowly and indistinctly^ streaked with dusky; 

 wings and tail duskj^ the remiges and rectrices edged with dull green- 

 ish blue, the middle and greater wing-coverts tipped with bufiy or 

 buffy whitish; anterior and lateral under parts dull buffy, deepest on 

 chest; abdomen and under tail-coverts white or buJfiy white; length 

 (skins), 124.71-136.65 (132.33); wing, 65.79-71.88 (69.34); tail, 50.80- 

 58.67 (53.09); exposed culmen, 9.11-10.41 (9.91); depth of bill at base, 

 6.86-7.62 (7.11); tarsus, 16.26-17.53 (17.02); middle toe, 12.19-12.95 

 (12.70).' 



Young. — Similar to adult female but rump and upper tail-coverts 

 light brown, without bluish or greenish tinge, and usually with chest 

 and sides narrowly and indistinctly streaked. 



Immature males have the blue, especially on the upper parts, more 

 or less clouded or overlaid by cinnamon-brown. 



Western United States and British Provinces; north to British 

 Columbia (chiefly east of Cascade Mountains), Idaho, Montana, etc. 

 (to Assiniboia ?, see Blakiston, Ibis, 1863, 80); south (in winter) to 

 Cape St. Lucas, Sinaloa (Mazatlan), Durango (Chacala), and Valley of 

 Mexico; east nearlj' or quite across the Great Plains to South Dakota 

 (Vermilion), Kansas (Ellis), etc. 



Emberiza amcma Say, in Long's Exped., ii, 1823, 47. 



Fringilla amcena Bonaparte, Am. Orn., i, 1825, 61, pi. 6, fig. 5; Synopsis, 1828, 

 106.— Ndttall, Man. Orn. and Can., i, 1832, 473; 2d ed., i, 1840, 546.— 

 Audubon, Orn. Biog., v, 1839, 64, 230, pis. 398, 424, fig. 1. 



Spiza amcena Jaedine, ed. Wilson's Am. Orn., iii, 1832, 317. — Audubon, Synop- 

 sis, 1839, 109; Birds Am., oct. ed., iii, 1841, 100, pi. 171. — Woodhouse, in 

 Rep. Sitgreaves' Expl. Zuni and Col. E., 1853, 87 (New Mexico). — Heek- 

 MANN, Eep. Pacific R. R. Surv., x, pt. iv, 1859, 46 (California). 



[Spizal amaena Bona paete, Consp. Av., i, 1850, 474. 



^ Seventeen specimens. ^ Ten specimens. 



