SONG-BIRDS. Bluebird 



Breeds : All through its range. 



iVesf : Hardly to be called a structure as it is usually merely a lining 



in a decayed knot hole, a bird-house, or the abandoned hole of 



the Woodpecker. 

 Eggs : 4-6, pale blue, shading sometimes to white. 

 Hange: Eastern United States to the eastern base of the Rocky 



Mountains, north to Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia ; south 



in winter, from the Middle States to the Gulf States and Cuba. 



Bermuda, resident. 



The Bluebird is the colour-bearer of the spring brigade, 

 even as the Song Sparrow is the bugler. There may be 

 snow on the ground, and the chimney nightly tells the com- 

 plaint of the wind. All other signs fail, but when we see 

 the Bluebird in his azure robe and hear his liquid notes 

 (he is April's minstrel), we know that spring is close at 

 hand, for in autumn and winter the blue coat is veiled 

 with rusty-brown, as if the murky storms had cast their 

 shadows upon it. The Bluebird's note is pleasing and 

 mellow, mingling delightfully with the general spring 

 chorus, but in itself it ranks more with the music of the 

 Warblers than with its own Thrush kin. It has a rather 

 sad tone, a trifle suggestive of complaint or pity. Heard at 

 a distance it has a purling quality. Uttered close at hand, 

 as when the birds go to and fro about their nests, it sounds 

 as if their domestic arrangements were being discussed 

 with the subdued, melancholy voice so often assumed by 

 unwilling housewives. Then the male will fly off on a 

 marketing expedition, murmuring to himself, "Dear, dear, 

 think of it, think of it ! " In fact, these birds seem to be 

 practical, every-day sort of little creatures, and very seldom 

 exhibit any tokens of affection after the nesting season 

 begins. Yet the Bluebird is one to which romance strongly 

 attaches us, its notes recall the first thrill of early spring, 

 and we cannot disassociate him from blooming orchards. 

 In the autumn he is one of the latest to call to us, the last 

 leaf (so to speak) on the tree of beautifully coloured Song- 

 birds, from which the Oriole, Tanager, Rose-breasted Gros- 

 beak, and Cardinal have dropped away. 



67 



