BIRDS OF KANSAS. 659 



delivers his few and frequent notes with evident fervor, as if 

 conscious of the pleasures that await him. These mellow notes 

 are all the sounds he nuikes for several weeks, seldom chirping 

 or scolding like other birds. His song is discontinued at mid- 

 summer, but his plaintive call, consisting of a single note pen- 

 sively modulated, continues every day until he leaves our fields. 

 This sound is one of the melodies of summer's decline, and re- 

 minds us, like the note of the green nocturnal tree-hopper, of 

 the ripened harvest, the fall of the leaf, and of all the joyous 

 festivals and melancholy reminiscences of autumn. 



"The Bluebird builds his nest in hollow trees and posts, and 

 may be encouraged to breed around our dwellings by supplying 

 boxes for his accommodation. In whatever vicinity we reside, 

 whether in a recent clearing or in the heart of a village, if we 

 set up a bird house in May, it will certainly be occupied by a 

 Bluebird, unless previously taken by a Wren or a Martin. But 

 there is commonly so great a demand for such accommodations, 

 that it is not unusual to see two or three different species con- 

 tending for one box." 



Their nests are loosely but rather smoothly constructed of 

 fine straws, grasses, and occasionally leaves, hair and feathers. 

 Eggs usually four or five, . 83x. 63; light greenish blue; in form, 

 ■ovaL Pure white sets have occasionally been taken. 



Sialia arctica (Swains.). 



MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD. 

 PLATE XXXV. 



A common winter sojourner in the western part of the State; 

 rare in the eastern portion. Begin to arrive the last of Septem- 

 ber; leave in March and April. 



B. 160. R. 24. C. 29. G. 11, 335. U. 768. 



Habitat. Western North America; north to Great Slave 

 Lake; east into Dakota and Texas; south into Mexico; breeds 

 in the Rocky Mountain region. 



Sp. Char. Breast, etc., fine greenish blue (in adult male), or brownish gray 

 or grayish brown ( in female), the belly and under tail coverts pure white. Adult 

 male: Above, rich, glossy cerulean blue, the wings and tail more azure, or cobalt; 

 heneath.lighter cerulean blue, the belly aud uudur tail coverts white. (In win- 



