174 BIRDS OF BERMUDA. 



The Bluebird is oue of the resident species, and is very common. It 

 is also migratory, arriving in small flocks after heavy gales in the winter 

 months. Colonel Wedderburn observed them in large flocks at Ireland 

 Island on January 5, 1848; and my friend Mr. J. M. Jones records 

 their appearance in smaller bauds in the Novembers of 1866 and 1871. 

 I have frequently noticed a sudden increase in the numbers of this spe- 

 cies in the winter, but the visitors ai)i)ear to leave again in the early 

 spring, taking with them doubtless some of their 'Mudian brethren, for 

 no perceptible accession of strength is apparent during the ensuing 

 summer, and, as will presently be seen in a quotation from Mr. Hurdis' 

 notes, so many occasionally take their departure as to cause a percep- 

 tible diminution in the numbers of the resident birds. 



Mr. Bartram, an excellent authority, inclines to the belief that they do 

 not migrate, but merely collect into flocks for the winter, but with all due 

 deference to hiju I think the following account by Mr. Hurdis is suffi- 

 cient to prove their migratory habits in the islands. "Although this 

 beautiful j^nd familiar bird appears to be a permanent resident in the 

 Bermudas, vast flights of them sometimes arrive from the American 

 coast. This was particularly the case as observed by Colonel Wedder- 

 burn in the winter months of 1848. In December, 1849, I fell in with 

 a large flock of these birds in Paget Parish. There was an appearance 

 of wildness and vigor about them which convinced me they were 

 strangers. A small party of eight or ten birds of a different species 

 was observed in the midst of these Bluebirds, moving with the flock from 

 place to place. I contrived to get within range of the small party and 

 brought down one specimen, which proved to be a Cedar Waxwing 

 {A. cedroriim), in beautiful plumage, but wanting the waxen appendages 

 to the secondaries. It was, consequently, a young bird of that year. 

 Now the Cedar Waxwing is a rare visitant in the Bermudas and is never 

 known to breed there. These Cedar-birds, then, must have arrived 

 recently in these islands, and in all probability had traversed the ocean 

 in company with the flock of Bluebirds they were associating with. 



"There is reason to believe that numbers of the native Bluebirds leave 

 the Bermudas with these large migratory flocks, thereby causing, as in 

 the summer of 1851, a comjiarative scarcity of that bird ; indeed, but 

 for this supposed movement, it would be difficult to account for the 

 annual increase of the native birds. 



This is, to my mind, the most delightful of birds, and certainly the 

 flower of the limited flock of Bermuda residents j its brilliant i)lumage, 



