THRUSHES 



243 



affected, they were almost exterminated. To 

 many people it was a sad spring in those regions. 

 Much dubious ornithology has been produced 

 by poets from whose minds facts are crowded 

 out by fancies, hut James Russell Lowell rexealed 

 a trained eye, as well as an ajipreciation of the 

 beautiful, when he wrote 1 in " Under the ^^'il- 

 lows " ) of 



The Bluebird, shifting his hght load of souk. 



From post to post along the cheerless fence, 



a pretty spring habit of the bird which has de- 

 lighted many a wayfarer. 



Like the Robin, the Bluebird shows a decided 

 fondness for human society. Orchards are 

 favorite natural resorts of the birrl, and furnish 

 plenty of home-sites in the shape of hollow 

 trunks or limbs of trees, for the bird alwavs jire- 

 fers a cavity of some kind wherein to ]il;ice its 

 nest. The wise owner of such trees will do his 

 utmost to encourage this tenancv. Li(lee<l, if he 

 will scatter through his orchard a goodly supjilv 

 of Bluebird homes, in the form of short sections 

 of hollow limbs, covered at the top and bottom, 

 and with an auger-hole doorway, he will soon 

 have plenty of Bluebird tenants, who will pay 

 their rent many times over by destroying in- 

 jurious insects and worms. For, with the possible 

 exceptions of the House Wren and the Purple 

 ALartin, the Bluebird is as willing as any bird to 

 set up housekeeping in a dwelling for him made 

 and provided. 



The sentimental aspects of the society of Blue- 

 birds will not be overlooked by people who ap- 

 preciate manifestations of very genuine domestic 

 peace and happiness. None of our common 

 birds are so demonstrative in their expressions 



of devotion to each other, and in their atTec- 

 tionate solicitude for their young. The note of 

 lament which is so plainly exi)ressed in the Blue- 

 bird's abbreviated warble as it prefiares to follow 

 the retreating summer, brings a sympathetic 

 echo from many a human heart. 



Geokce Gi-.\ddex. 



The Bluebird has not been accused, so far as 

 known, of stealing fruit or of preying upon crops. 

 An examination by the United .'^tates Biological 

 .Survey of 855 stomachs showed that 68 per cent, 

 of the food consisted of insects and their allies, 

 while the other 3J per cent, was made up of 

 variou; vegetable substances and was found 

 mostly in stomachs taken in winter. Beetles con- 

 stituted J I per cent, of the whole food, grass- 

 hoppers 22. caterpillars 10, and various other 

 insects 9, while a number of spiders and luyria- 

 pods, about 6 per cent., comprised the remainder 

 of the animal diet. .\1I these are more or less 

 harmful, except a few predacious beetles, which 

 amounted to 9 per cent. The destruction of 

 grasshoppers by Bluebirds is very noticeable in 

 August and September, when these insects make 

 up about 53 per cent, of the diet. So far as its 

 vegetable food is concerned the Bluebird is posi- 

 tively harmless. The only trace of anv useful 

 product in the stomachs consisted of a few black- 

 berry seeds, and even these ])robab!y belonged to 

 wild rather than cultivated varieties. 



The Azure Bluebird ( Sialia sialis fiilz'a ) 

 wanders over the Mexican border into .\rizona. 

 It is much like the tyjie S[)ecies, though the 

 browns of its plumage are paler, the grayish- 

 blue nearer a gray-white, and the blue of the 

 upper parts greener. 



WESTERN BLUEBIRD 

 Sialia mexicana occidentalis J. K. To7cnscnd 



Other Name.— California Bluebird. 



General Description.— Length, 7 inches. M.\le : 

 Upper parts, cobalt-blue ; under parts, blue and red. 

 Fem.^le: Upper parts, grayish-brown and blue; under 

 parts, grayish-brown, brownish-gray, and cinnamon- 

 rufous. Bill, small and slender; win,gs, lon.g and 

 pointed ; tail, shorter than wing, distinctly notched : 

 legs, short. 



Color. — .^iiui.T M.m.e: Above; idain rich cobalt-lihie. 

 brighter blue on rump, upper tail-coverts, tail, and outer 

 webs of primaries; shafts of feathers of wing and tail, 

 sometimes also of shoulder, the upper tail-coverts some- 



times with streaks of black ; a patch of chestnut on back- 

 between shoulders ; sides of head, chin, throat, upper 

 central (usually also whole center of) chest, and breast, 

 uniform blue, slightly paler and duller than color of 

 upper parts, the blue gradually fading on abdomen and 

 flanks into pale gray; sides of chest and breast and 

 front part of sides, chestnut, this extended across chest, 

 connecting the two lateral areas, extending along sides 

 to flanks ; under tail-coverts, blue edged basally with 

 pale gray ; under wing-coverts, darker blue ; bill, black ; 

 iris, dark brown. .-Vuclt Fem.m.e: Crown, hindneck, 

 dark brownish-gray; back and shoulders, light grayish- 



