The Lazuli Bunting 



No. 70 



Lazuli Bunting 



A. O. U. No. 599. Passerina amoena (Say). 



Synonym. — Lazuli Finch. 



Description. — Adult male: Head and neck all around light blue (cendre blue 

 or light cerulean blue to cerulean blue); this color carried over upperparts, but pure 

 only on rump, elsewhere appearing as sub-skirting of feathers; middle coverts broadly 

 and greater coverts narrowly tipped with white; wings and tail otherwise black; some 

 skirting of ochraceous on back, scapulars, and tertials; lores black; chest ochraceous 

 tawny, sharplj' defined from blue above, but shading gradually into white of remaining 

 underparts; sides and flanks with outcropping bluish dusky. Bill black above, pale 

 bluish below; feet brownish dusky; iris brown. Adult female: Above grayish brown 

 or brownish buffy, the color of male recalled by dull greenish blue of crown, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts, and by skirtings of wing- and tail-feathers; middle and greater 

 coverts tipped with light buffy; underparts washed with ochraceous buffy, most strongly 

 on chest and sides, fading to whitish on belly and under tail-coverts. Young birds 

 resemble the female but lack the greenish blue tinge, and are usually more or less 

 streaked below on chest and sides. Length of adult male: I33-3-I39-7 (5.25-5.50); 

 wing 73 (2.87); tail 55 (2.17); bill 10 (.40); tarsus 17 (.67). Female smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size; color pattern of male distinctive; female 

 not so easy — in general, distinguishable by a softness and uniformity of the grayish 

 browns, by the ochraceous of chest, and by at least some hint of greenish blue above. 



Nesting. — Nest: A rather coarsely woven basket of dried grasses, especially 

 their leafy portions; lined with finer grasses or horsehair; and lashed firmly to sup- 

 porting stalks of weeds, or settled in forks of bushes, in thickets or tangles; rarely 

 low in trees (live oaks). Eggs: 3 or 4; rounded ovate to elongate ovate; very pale 

 bluish green, immaculate or, very rarely, speckled with blackish. Av. of 16 eggs in 

 M. C. O., 18.3 x 13.5 (.72 x .53). Season: May— July; one or two broods. 



General Range. — Breeds in Transition and Upper Sonoran zones throughout 

 the western states and in the southern portion of the western provinces of Canada, 

 east to North Dakota and Texas; winters in Lower California and in Mexico, south 

 to the valley of Mexico. 



Distribution in California. — Of general occurrence as a breeder in the Upper 

 Sonoran and Transition zones throughout the State; apparently indifferent to mois- 

 ture, but keeps to brushy margins of springs and streams in semi-arid Sonoran terri- 

 tory. Occurs more widely during migrations at lower levels. No winter records. 



Authorities. — Heermann (Spiza amaena), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, 

 ii., 1853, p. 266;Barlow, Condor, vol. iii., 1901, p. 174 (Fyffe; nest and eggs); Carpenter, 

 Condor, vol. ix., 1907, p. 199 (nest and abnormal eggs); Tyler, Pac. Coast Avifauna, 

 no. 9, 1913, p. 89 (Fresno; habits, nesting, etc.); Howell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 12, 

 1917, p. 87 (Santa Barbara Ids.). 



ONE can scarcely believe his eyes as this jewel flashes from a thicket, 

 crosses a space of common air, and disappears again all in a trice. Either 

 there has been some optical illusion, or Nature has grown unco careless to 



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