WESTERN BLUE-BIRD. 177 



seems constantly to affect similar situations with our common kind, along 

 the coast of the Pacific, as ours does along that of the Atlantic." 



I have given figures of both the male and the female in their spring dress. 



Sialia occidentalis, Western Blue-bird, Towns., Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelphia, 



vol. vii. p. 18S. 

 Western Blue-bird, Sylvia occidentalis, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 41. 



Adult Male in summer. 



This species in size and form, as well as in colour, is very similar to the 

 Common Blue-bird. Its bill is of ordinary length, nearly straight, broader 

 than high at the base, compressed toward the end; upper mandible with the 

 dorsal line straight and a little declinate at the base, convex toward the end, 

 the ridge narrow, the sides convex toward the end, the edges direct and 

 overlapping, with a slight notch close to the narrow deflected tip; lower 

 mandible with the angle of moderate length and narrow, the dorsal line 

 straight, the sides convex, the edges direct, the tip narrow. Nostrils basal, 

 elliptical, operculate, partially concealed by the feathers. 



Head rather large; neck short; body moderately full. Feet of ordinary 

 length, slender; tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with seven scutella, 

 behind with two long plates meeting so as to form a thin edge; toes of 

 moderate length; the first stouter, the second and fourth nearly equal, the 

 third much longer; claws moderate, well curved, compressed, laterally 

 grooved, tapering to a fine point. 



Plumage soft and blended, with considerable gloss. Short bristles at the 

 base of the upper mandible. Wings very long; the first quill very small, 

 being only seven-twelfths of an inch long, the second half a twelfth shorter 

 than the third, which is longest, but only exceeds the fourth by three-fourths 

 of a twelfth; the other primaries rapidly graduated; outer secondaries emar- 

 ginate, inner not elongated. Tail rather long, deeply emarginate, the mid- 

 dle feathers being four-twelfths of an inch shorter than the longest. 



Bill and feet black; iris brown. The general colour of the upper parts is 

 bright blue, of a tint approaching to ultramarine; a broad band across the 

 fore part of the back, and the scapulars, chestnut-red; the quills and larger 

 coverts dark greyish-brown, the outer webs blue, the primaries light brown 

 at the end, the secondaries faintly margined with whitish. The tail-feathers 

 are also brown toward the end, but blue toward the base; the lateral with 

 the margin of the outer web whitish. The sides and fore part of the neck 

 are light blue, tinged with grey; the fore part of the breast and the sides of 

 the body light chestnut-red; the rest of the lower parts greyish-white, 

 tinged with blue. 



Vol. II. 31 



