THE BLUEBIRD. 101 



All through March, but especially through April, the 

 bright colors and soft, clear warble of the Bluebird are 

 inseparably associated with our landscape. The females, 

 arriving some time after the males, about the middle of 

 April, there is a modest courtship, resulting in pairing and 

 immediate preparation for nesting. As the female first 

 appears and alights on the fence, the males may appear one 

 on each side of her, each vying with the other in attractive 

 demonstrations. They raise their wings with a graceful, 

 trembling motion, warble most significantly, and sidle 

 towards her. Perchance she disdains them both, and as she 

 flies away they both pursue her. A spirited contest between 

 the males may now occur, or the female accepting the over- 

 tures of the one, the other will quietly retire. The mating 

 over, the warbling grows more cheerful. Boxes, deserted 

 Woodpeckers' holes, and natural cavities in posts, stubs, 

 and especially about the trees of the orchard, or even an 

 opening in the cornice of the house, are all explored, the 

 female constantly leading, and the male attending with a 

 great deal of gallant ceremony and music. Cheerily., cheej'ily, 

 is his constant theme, with more or less variation, as the 

 quiet and industrious housewife lugs in the various soft 

 materials — mostly dried grasses — for bedding the nest. 

 The eggs, from four to six, and about the size of those of a 

 Bay-winged Sparrow, some .85 x .62, are of a clear pale- 

 blue. As soon as the young are able to fly, the male takes 

 them in charge, and the female starts a second brood, and 

 sometimes in like manner a third. During all this time 

 their destruction of insects, which constitute their chief 

 diet, is immense. 



This season I had a good opportunity of watching the 

 incubation of a nest made in the mortise of an old fancy 

 post, the remains of a former fence in a front yard, the mor- 



