^ 



XX 



BLUE-BIRD. 



{Jlmpelis sialis. Nobis. Sialia Wilsonii, Swainson. Sylvia sialis, 

 Wilson, i. p. 56. pi. 3. fig. 3. [male.] Saxicola sialis, Bonap. 

 Ann. Lye. ii. p. 88.) 



Sp. Charact. — Blue; beneath ferruginous; the belly whitish. — 

 Female dull blue. — Young, dusky, spotted with white ; beneath 

 greyish white, clouded with dusky ; wings and tail bluish. 



This well known and familiar favorite inhabits prob- 

 ably the whole continent of America to the very line of 

 the tropics. Some appear to migrate in winter to the Ber- 

 mudas and Bahama islands, though most of those which 

 pass the summer in the North only retire to the Southern 

 States, or the table land of Mexico. In South Carolina 

 and Georgia they were abundant in January and Febru- 

 ary, and even on the 12th and 28th of the former month, 

 the weather being mild, a few of these wanderers war- 

 bled out their simple notes from the naked limbs of the 

 long-leaved pines. Sometimes they even pass the winter 

 in Pennsylvania, or at least make their appearance with 

 almost every relenting of the severity of the winter or 



