to cover liiiii, while we itnapinc, with the poet who thought it not time and talent 

 wasted to write an ei)ita|)h to the redbreast. 



"Small notes wake from iindergroimd 

 Where now his tiny hones arc laid. 

 No prowlinj^ cat with w hiskered face 

 Ap[)roaches this sequestered place; 

 Xo school-hoy with his willow how 

 Shall aim at thee a treacherous blow." 



But the funeral of even a robin is a sad event; so we will bring him back in 

 the spring, for 



"There's a call upon the housetop, an answer from the plain. 

 There's a warble in the sunshine, a twitter in the rain. " 



The Bluebird 



Alexander Wilson 



The pleasing manners and the sociable disposition of this little bird entitle 

 him to particular notice. As one of the first messengers of spring, bringing the 

 charming tidings to our very doors, he bears his own recommendation always 

 along with him, and meets with a hearty welcome from everybody. 



Through generally accounted a bird of passage, yet in Pennsylvania so early 

 as the middle of February, if the weather be open, he usually makes his appear- 

 ance about his own haunts — the barn, orchard and fenceposts. Storms and deep 

 snows sometimes succeeding, he disappears for a time, but about the middle of 

 March is again seen accompanied by his mate, visiting the box in the garden or the 

 hole in the old apple-tree, the cradle of some generations of his ancestors. 



The prcliminariesbeing settled and the spot fixed upon, the Bluebirds begin 

 to clean out from the old nest the rubbish of the former year, and to prepare for 

 the reception of their future offspring. 



The female lays five, and sometimes six, eggs of a pale blue color, and raises 

 two and sometimes three broods in a season, the male taking the youngest under 

 his particular care while the female is again sitting. Their principal food consists 

 of insects, particularly large beetles and others that lurk among old dead and 

 decaying trees, as well as upon the groimd. Spiders are also a favorite repast 

 with them. In the fall they occasionally regale themselves on the berries of the 

 sour gum and, as winter approaches, on those of the red cedar, and on the fruit 

 of a rough and hairy vine that runs up and cleaves fast to the trunks of trees. 

 Ripe persimmons are another of their favorite dishes, and among other fruits 

 and seeds these are found in their stomachs during the autumn months. 



The usual spring and summer song of the Bluebird is a soft, agreeable, and 



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