100 LAZULI FINCH. 



Bill light brown, tinged with blue. Iris hazel. Feet yellowish-brown. 

 The general colour is light yellowish-brown, the under parts and the sides 

 of the head lighter; the wings deep brown, margined with lighter. The 

 female is also considerably smaller. 



The Wild Sarsaparilla. 



Schisandra coccinea, Mich., Flor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 218. Pursch, Flor. Amer., vol. i. 

 p. 212. — Pentandria Polygynia, Linn. 



A climbing shrubby plant, distinguished by its carmine-coloured flowers, 

 consisting of nine sepals; its numerous, one-seeded berries, and elliptico- 

 lanceolate leaves, acute at both ends, and supported upon a long petiole. 



LAZULI FINCH. 



Spiza Amosna, Say. 

 PLATE CLXXI.— Male and Female. 



The Lazuli Finch, one of the handsomest of its tribe, was added to our 

 Fauna by Thomas Say, who procured it in the course of Long's expedition 

 already mentioned. A figure of the only specimen then obtained was given 

 in the continuation of Wilson's American Ornithology by the Prince of 

 Musignano. It has been my good fortune to procure a fine pair from Mr. 

 Townsend, who shot them on the Columbia river, on the 3d of June, 1836, 

 so that I have been enabled to represent the female, which has not hitherto 

 been figured, as well as the male. That enterprising naturalist has informed 

 me, that "the Chinook Indians name this species Tilkonapaooks, and that it 

 is rather a common bird on the Columbia, but is always shy and retiring in 

 its habits, the female being very rarely seen. It possesses lively and pleasing 

 powers of song, which it pours forth from the top branches of moderate- 

 sized trees. Its nest, which is usually placed in the willows along the 

 margins of the streams, is composed of small sticks, fine grasses, and cow or 

 buffalo hair." 



A nest of this species presented to me by Mr. Nuttall, who found it on 



