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.
Cyanospiza versicolor, Baird.
VARIED BUNTING.
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,