_Emberiza amœna_, SAY, Long’s Exped. II, 1823, 47. _Fringilla (Spiza) amœna_, BONAP. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 61, pl. vi, f. 5. _Fringilla amœna_, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 64, 230, pls. cccxcviii and ccccxxiv. _Spiza amœna_, BONAP. List, 1838.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 109.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 100, pl. clxxi.—MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 283.—HEERM. X, s, 46. _Cyanospiza amœna_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 504.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 205.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 233. [Illustration: _Cyanospiza amœna._] SP. CHAR. _Male._ Upper parts generally, with the head and neck all round, greenish-blue; the interscapular region darker. Upper part of breast pale brownish-chestnut extending along the sides and separated from the blue of the throat by a faint white crescent; rest of under parts and axillars white. A white patch on the middle wing-coverts, and an obscurely indicated white band across the ends of the greater coverts. Loral region black. Length, about 5.50; wing, 3.90; tail, 2.60. _Female._ Brown above, tinged with blue on rump and tail; whitish beneath, tinged with buff on the breast and throat; faint white bands on wings. HAB. High Central Plains to the Pacific. This species is about the size of _C. cyanea_; the bill exactly similar. The females of the two species are scarcely distinguishable, except by the faint traces of one or two white bands on the wings in _amœna_. Sometimes both the throat and the upper part of the breast are tinged with pale brownish-buff. HABITS. The Lazuli Finch was first obtained by Mr. Say, who met with it in Long’s expedition. It was observed, though rarely, along the banks of the Arkansas River during the summer months, as far as the base of the Rocky Mountains. It was said to frequent the bushy valleys, keeping much in the grass, after its food, and seldom alighting on either trees or shrubs. Townsend, who found this rather a common bird on the Columbia, regarded it as 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 upper branches of low trees. Its nests were usually found placed in willows along the margins of streams, and were composed of small sticks, fine grasses, and buffalo-hair. 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.