VARIED BUNTING
600. Passerina versicolor. 5½ inches
This beautiful species is less common than any others of the genus and has a very restricted range in the United States. The plumage of the male birds varies a great deal; that shown in the accompanying illustration is from a brightly colored specimen. They will average duller than this. These birds frequent thickets or brush-studded pasture land. Their song is described as weaker than that of the [Indigo Bunting], but having much of the same character.
Nest.—Built of grasses, bark and fine rootlets; a cup-shaped structure placed in forks of bushes, usually in tangled thickets. The three or four eggs cannot be distinguished from those of the last species.
Range.—The Lower Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas. A sub-species (pulchra) is also found in Lower California and southern Arizona.
