BLUE-BIRD. 445 



warm gleam of thawing sunshine. From this circum- 

 stance of their roving about in quest of their scanty food, 

 like the hard-pressed and hungry Robin Red-Breast, who 

 by degrees gains such courage from necessity, as to en- 

 ter the cottage for his allowed crumbs ; it has without 

 foundation been supposed that our Blue-Bird, in the in- 

 tervals of his absence, passes the tedious and stormy time 

 in a state of dormancy ; but it is more probable that he flies 

 to some sheltered glade and warm and more hospitable 

 ^situation, to glean his frugal fare from the berries of the 

 cedar, or the wintry fruits which still remain ungather- 

 ed in the swamps. Defended from the severity of the 

 cold, he now also, in all probability, roosts in the hol- 

 lows of decayed trees, a situation which he generally 

 chooses for the site of his nest. In the South, at this un- 

 promising and gloomy season, they are seen to feed on the 

 glutinous berries of the mistletoe, the green-briar, and the 

 sumach. Content with their various fare, and little affect- 

 ed by the extremes of heat and cold, they breed and spend 

 the summer from Labrador to Natchez, if not to Mexico, 

 where great elevation produces the most temperate and 

 mild of climates. They are also abundant at this season, 

 to the west of the Mississippi, in the territories of the 

 Missouri and Arkansas. 



In the Middle and Northern States, the return of the 

 Blue-Bird to his old haunts round the barn and the or- 

 chard, is hailed as the first agreeable presage of return- 

 ing spring, and he is no less a messenger of grateful tid- 

 ings to the farmer, than an agreeable, familiar, and use- 

 ful companion to all. Though sometimes he makes a 

 still earlier flitting visit, from the 3d to the middle of 

 March he comes hither as a permanent resident, and is 

 now accompanied by his mate, who immediately visits 

 the box in the garden, or the hollow in the decayed or- 

 38 



