THE MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD. 



C^ FN an early number of Birds we 

 presented a picture of the com- 

 mon Bluebird, which has been 

 G> J I much admired. The mountain 

 Bluebird, whose beauty is 

 thought to excel that of his cousin, is 

 probably known to few of our readers 

 who live east of the Rocky Mountain 

 region, though he is a common winter 

 sojourner in the western part of Kan- 

 sas, beginning to arrive there the last 

 of September, and leaving in ]\Iarch and 

 April. The habits of these birds of 

 the central regions are very similar to 

 those of the eastern, but more wary 

 and silent. Even their love song is 

 said to be less loud and musical. It is 

 a rather feeble, plaintive, monotonous 

 warble, and their chirp and twittering 

 notes are weak. They subsist upon 

 the cedar berries, seeds of plants, grass- 

 hoppers, beetles, and the like, which 

 they pick up largely upon the ground, 

 and occasionally scratch for among 

 the leaves. During the fall and win- 

 ter they visit the plains and valleys, 

 and are usually met with in small 

 flocks, until the mating season. 



Nests of the Mountain Bluebird 

 have been found in New Mexico and 

 Colorado, from the foothills to near 

 timber line, usually in deserted Wood- 

 pecker holes, natural cavities in trees, 

 fissures in the sides of steep rocky 

 cliffs, and, in the settlements, in suit- 

 able locations about and in the adobe 

 buildings. In settled portions of the 

 west it nests in the cornice of build- 

 ings, under the eaves of porches, in the 

 nooks and corners of barns and out- 

 houses, and in boxes provided for its 

 occupation. Prof. Ridgway found the 

 Rocky Mountain Bluebird nesting in 

 Virginia City, Nevada, in June. The 

 nests were composed almost entirely 

 of dry grass. In some sections, how- 

 ever, the inner bark of the cedar enters 

 largely into their composition. The 

 eggs are usually five, of a pale greenish- 

 blue. 



The females of this species are dis- 

 tinguished by a greener blue color and 

 longer wings, and this bird is often 

 called the Arctic Bluebird. It is emphat- 

 ically a bird of the mountains, its vis- 

 its to the lower portions of the country 

 being mainly during winter. 



Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead ; 

 They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbits' tread. 

 The Robin and the Wren are flown, and from the shrubs the Jay, 

 And from the wood-top calls the Crow all through the gloomy day. 



— Bryant. 



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