APPENDIX. 145 



Bluebird. — Contin. 



into this simple ditty, and with an ecstatic feeling of delight he often 

 raises and quivers his wings like the mocking Orpheus ; and amidst hia 

 striving rivals in song, exerts his utmost powers to introduce variety into 

 his unborrowed and simple strain." — Nuttall, T. : Manual of the Ornith. of 

 the U. S. and Canada, 2d ed. (Land-birds), pp. 510-511. 



Bluebird and Robin. 



The hold that these familiar heralds of spring have on 

 the heart is well illustrated by passages in " Birds of Bering 

 Sea and the Arctic Ocean," by E. W. Nelson. One can 

 hardly imagine the effect of a tuneful bird-song in a region 

 so desolate and cold that the croak of the raven sounds 

 sweeter there than the warbling of the nightingale heard 

 from out its native boughs. 



" It is a pleasant experience for one in a far-off region like this to come 

 across the familiar forms known in other days. The sight of this bird 

 gleaning its food about the houses on a frosty spring morning in May car- 

 ries one's mind back from sterile Arctic scenery to the blossoming orchards, 

 the hum of bees, and such other pleasant sounds and sights of Nature as 

 go to make up a beautiful spring day in lower latitudes. One misses, how- 

 ever, the warbling strain of the bluebird, and the cheerless surroundings 

 soon bring the stern reality too closely home. The birds, too, seem im- 

 pressed with the gloomy surroundings, and I have never heard them utter 

 their notes during the time of their visits to the sea-coast. In the wooded 

 interior, however, they regain their spirits and rear their young even 

 north of the circle ; and here their cheering notes enliven the wooded 

 river-courses during the long summer days, in striking contrast to the 

 silence of a few months earlier, when a deathly hush made the shadows of 

 the forests a fitting haunt for the wolf and wolverines. 



" There is no record of the occurrence of the robin in Northeastern 

 Asia that I have found, although as before mentioned it undoubtedly is a 

 casual visitant to that region. Elliott found a single bird wind-bound 

 upon the Seal Islands, beyond which there is no record of its occurrence 

 on any of the islands in Bering Sea." — Nelson, E. W. : Birds of Bering 

 Sea and the Arctic Ocean. (U. S. Pub. Docs., Cruise of Corwin, 1881.) 



For description of Robin's song, see Higginson, T. W. : Out-door 

 Papers, p. 305. 



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