INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 



129 



the robbing or destruction of nests, or the maiming of such helpless 

 animals. These acts are, for the most part, punishable by law, but if 

 a child can be led into the observance of these laws through intelligent 

 interest in the birds themselves, the result is better than if fear is 

 the instigating cause. Upon adults we would urge the desirability 

 of discriminating in judging birds, the careful study of the food 

 habits before condemning, in the building of boxes for wrens, blue- 

 birds and martins, and in encouraging by their example generally a 

 wise and humane policy toward our feathered associates. 



Dudley Dorn rightly says : "No one should own or handle a 

 gun unless first proved to be possessed of common sense." 



BLUEBIRD. 



Fig. 124. — Bluebird. From Biological Survey U. S. Dep. of Agriculture. 



Upper parts, including wings and tail, bright blue ; breast, throai 

 and sides, reddish. Length, seven inches. A description of this 

 common bird is hardly necessary. It is of wide distribution, from the 

 Atlantic to the Rockies, and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Its 

 note is among the first to be heard in the spring, and one of the 

 last in the fall, at which latter time we associate it with the falling 

 leaves of Indian sunnner. To the writer its note in the fall has always 

 appeared to take on additional sadness, as though lamenting the dy- 

 ing of the year. It nests in hollow trees and boxes erected in suitable 

 places, and should be encouraged by providing it with plenty of such 



