Mr. Nuttall found the nest of this bird fastened between the stem and two branches of a large fern. It was funnel-shaped, being six inches in height and three in breadth.
This bird possibly occurs quite rarely, as far east as the Mississippi, as I have what is said to be its egg taken from a nest near St. Louis. It only becomes abundant on the plains. Mr. Ridgway found it very generally distributed throughout his route, inhabiting all the bushy localities in the fertile districts. He regarded it as, in nearly every respect, the exact counterpart of the eastern C. cyanea. The notes of the two birds are so exactly the same that their song would be undistinguishable but for the fact that in the amœna it is appreciably weaker. He found their nests usually in the low limbs of trees, near their extremity, and only a few feet from the ground. Mr. J. A. Allen found this species common in Colorado, more so among the foot-hills than on the plains, but does not appear to have met with it in Kansas.
This species, Mr. Lord states, visits Vancouver Island and British Columbia early in the summer, arriving at the island in May, and rather later east of the Cascades. The song of the male is said to be feeble, and only now and then indulged in, as if to cheer his more sombre partner during incubation. The nest, he adds, is round and open at the top, composed of various materials worked together, lined with hair, and placed in a low bush, usually by the side of a stream.
The Lazuli Finch was met with in large numbers, and many of their nests procured, by Mr. Xantus, in the neighborhood of Ft. Tejon, California. Indeed, it is a very abundant species generally on the Pacific coast, and is found at least as far north as Puget Sound, during the summer. It arrives at San Diego, according to Dr. Cooper, about April 22, and remains there until October. A male bird, kept in a cage over winter, was found to retain its blue plumage. It is a favorite cage-bird in California, where it is absurdly known as the Indigo Bird. During the summer months, according to Dr. Cooper, there is hardly a grove in the more open portions of the State uninhabited by one or more pairs of this beautiful species. Although the female is very shy and difficult to obtain, except on the nest, the male is not timid, and frequently sings his lively notes from the top of some bush or tree, continuing musical in all weathers and throughout the summer. He describes its song as unvaried, as rather monotonous, and closely resembling that of C. cyanea.
Their nest, he adds, is usually built in a bush, not more than three or four feet from the ground, formed of fibrous roots, strips of bark, and grass, with a lining of vegetable down or hair, and securely bound to the surrounding branches. The eggs, five in number, he describes as white, faintly tinged with blue. At Santa Barbara he found them freshly laid May 6.
These birds are never gregarious, though the males come in considerable flocks in the spring, several days before the females. They travel at night, arriving at Santa Cruz about April 12. A nest found by Dr. Cooper, May 7, in a low bush close to a public road, was about three feet from the ground. It was very strongly built, supported by a triple fork of the branch, and was composed of blades of grass firmly interwoven, and lined with horsehair and cobwebs. It measured three inches in height and three and three fourths in width. The cavity was two inches deep and one and three fourths wide.
In Arizona Dr. Coues found this bird a summer resident, but not abundant.
At Puget Sound this bird arrives about May 15. Dr. Suckley states that in Oregon it was observed returning from the south, in large flocks, in one instance of several hundred individuals.
The eggs of the Lazuli, when fresh, are of a light blue, which on the least exposure soon fades into a bluish-white. They are almost exactly oval in shape, and measure .75 by .60 of an inch. One end is somewhat more rounded, but the difference is slight.
Spiza versicolor, Bon. Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1837, 120.—Ib. Conspectus Av. 1850, 475.—Cab. Mus. Hein. 1851, 148. Carduelis luxuosus, Lesson, Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 41. Cyanospiza versicolor, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 503, pl. lvi, f. 2.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 234.
Sp. Char. Posterior half of hood, with throat, dark brownish-red; interscapular region similar, but darker. Forepart of hood, lesser wing-coverts, back of the neck, and rump, purplish-blue; the latter purest blue; the belly reddish-purple, in places tinged with blue, more obscure posteriorly. Feathers of wing and tail dark-brown, edged with dull bluish. Loral region and narrow frontal band black. Feathers on side of rump white at base. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.38.
Female. Yellowish-brown; paler beneath, and lightest behind. No white on wing. Tail with a bluish gloss.
Hab. Northern Mexico, and Cape St. Lucas. Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365); Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 379); Orizaba (Scl. 1857, 214); (Sum. M. B. S. I, 551; breeding); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 17).
The bill is stouter and more swollen to the end, and the mandible is much more curved than that of C. cyanea; and its perfectly concave commissure, without any shallow lobe in the middle, and the much more arched ridge, would almost separate the two generically. The wing is shorter and more rounded, the fourth quill longest, then the third, second, and fifth. The first is only a little longer than the seventh. The tail is decidedly rounded; rather more so than in C. cyanea.
The female is very similar to those of C. amœna and cyanea. The former has whitish bands on the wing; the latter differs in shape of bill, and has the first quill but little less than the second, or longest; not shorter than the sixth. In 34,033 ♂, Cape St. Lucas (June 26), the colors are much brighter than in any other of the collection. The whole occiput is bright scarlet, and the forehead nearly pure light blue, neither having scarcely a tinge of purple.
Autumnal and winter males have the bright tints very slightly obscured by grayish-brown tips to the feathers, especially on the back. The female in autumn is much more brown above and more rusty beneath than in spring.
Habits. This beautiful species has only doubtful claims to a place in our fauna. It is a Mexican species, and may occasionally cross into our territory. It was met with at Boquillo, in the Mexican State of New Leon, by Lieutenant Couch. It was procured in Guatemala by Dr. Van Patten and by Salvin, and is given by Bonaparte as from Peru. It is also found at Cape St. Lucas, where it is not rare, and where it breeds.
This bird is also found at Orizaba, according to Sumichrast, but is quite rare in the State of Vera Cruz. Its common name is Prusiano. Its geographical distribution he was not able satisfactorily to ascertain.
Among the memoranda of Mr. Xantus made at Cape St. Lucas, we find the following in connection with this species: 517, nest and three eggs of Cyanospiza versicolor; obtained May 5 on a myrtle hanging down from very high perpendicular bluffs, off the Trajoles, at Cape St. Lucas. 1535, nest and eggs of the same found on a vine ten feet high.
Specimens of this species were taken by Mr. Boucard at Oaxaca, Mexico, during the winter months.
Emberiza ciris, Linn. Kong. Sv. Vet. Akad. Hand. 1750, 278; tab. vii, f. 1.—Ib. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 313.—Wilson, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 68, pl. xxiv, f. 1, 2. Passerina ciris, Vieillot, Gal. Ois. I, 1824, 81, pl. lxvi. Fringilla ciris, Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 279; V, 517, pl. liii. Spiza ciris, Bon. List, 1838.—Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 476.—Aud. Syn. 1839, 108.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 93, pl. clxix. Cyanospiza ciris, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 503.—Ib. Mex. Bound. II, Birds, 17, pl. xviii, f. 2.—Heerm. X, c, p. 14. ? Fringilla mariposa, Scopoli, Annals Hist. Nat. I, 1769, 151. Painted Finch, Catesby, Pennant.
Sp. Char. Male. Head and neck all round ultramarine-blue, excepting a narrow stripe from the chin to the breast, which, with the under parts generally, the eyelids, and the rump (which is tinged with purplish), are vermilion-red. Edges of chin, loral region, greater wing-coverts, inner tertiary, and interscapular region, green; the middle of the latter glossed with yellow. Tail-feathers, lesser wing-coverts, and outer webs of quills, purplish-blue. Length,