600. Passerina versicolor. 5 1/2 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.