Audubon and Wilson describe the eggs of this bird as blue, with purplish spots at the larger end. All that I have ever seen are white, with a slight tinge of greenish or blue, and unspotted. I have never been able to meet with a spotted egg of this bird, the identification of which was beyond suspicion. They are of a rounded-oval shape, one side is only a little more pointed than the other. They measure .75 of an inch in length by .58 in breadth. They resemble the eggs of C. amœna, but are smaller, and are not so deeply tinged with blue.
Cyanospiza amœna, Baird.
LAZULI FINCH.
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.
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.