Bluebird. 51 



tlie touching sweetness of their familiar warbles. Who 

 can think of associating gayety with the gentle deport- 

 ment of our April favorites? Or who would fancy that 

 their warbles are prompted by the gush of spirit to which 

 we attribute the utterances of others of the songsters ? In- 

 deed, our vocalists of the early springtime are all strangely 

 plaintive in their best performances. Their voices are at- 

 tuned to a common chord of minor melody. It is only in 

 the lyrics of the songsters of the unbounded summer that 

 we hear expressions of real cheer and gayety. 



The period of bluebird courtship begins in the upper 

 regions, and is continued with their gradual descent to the 

 lower levels of their resorts. Their pretty exchanges of 

 vows of love and honor warm them to greater animation, 

 and they show more of the old confidence and familiarity, 

 having no longer the inclination to drift upward from us 

 into their ethereal castles. They are thinking of estab- 

 lishing homes, and hence they drop lower from time to 

 time, and inspect the fence-posts and trunks of trees for 

 suitable cavities for their use. They now revisit the boxes 

 provided by the children or kind-hearted bird friends for 

 their use, and explore the recesses of out-buildings, be- 

 coming more eager and demonstrative in their gallantries. 

 Crevices in barns, granaries, and porches are peered into 

 as promising snug sites for their establishments, and many 

 musical conversations and twittering quarrels occur before 

 the selections are made. 



Even to the superficial observer there is a curious par- 

 allelism in the lives of the birds and men, and a medi- 

 tative mind can perceive resemblances to all phases of 

 human experience in the daily lives of our feathered 

 friends. Marriage has widely divergent results upon the 

 characters of different individuals, aud in a similar sense 

 the mating time is a transitional period in the habits of 

 many species of birds. Some become more cheerful as the 

 duties of home and family increase, and they daily find 

 added inspiration for their son^s. Others no longer ex- 

 hibit their wonted vivacity, but to the world are dull and 

 reserved— strangely unlike the promise of their earlier 

 days. The bobolinks are a notable example of the latter 

 class, and the bluebirds are equally remarkable for their 



