A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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