BLUEBIRD. 
Milegretto, sempre legato et tremolo, 
ae Ler Seer? EN PT CT RN A ET 
A << J’ | SSS 
One of the most extraordinary effects of color I have 
ever witnessed in my life was exhibited by a Bluebird 
in full sunlight relieved against the sombre background 
of athunder-cloud. It was in Middlebury, Vt., late in 
the afternoon when the sun shone slanting across the 
lawn adjoining the residence of a friend. He pointed 
out the bird to me, and upon viewing it through my 
opera-glass I was more than amazed. The breast was a 
light, zesthetic red suggestive of the conch-shell’s color; 
the shoulders were a vivid turquoise blue! The feathers 
had an iridescent effect enhanced by a tiny flash of 
brilliant white which was the touch of the sun’s strong 
rays upon the back of a black beetle held in the bird’s 
mouth. What a revelation of color it was! I wondered 
at the time whether any one would believe it if I painted 
it; ‘‘most likely they would not,’ I said to myself, 
‘‘that would be the penalty for reporting Nature in one 
of her eccentric moods!”’ It is difficult to believe in suck 
color mostly because of its strange brilliance. Neverthe 
less, in the strong sunlight, the wonderful orange cadmium 
hue of the Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea), a 
common species of the Mississippi Valley, is like a gleam 
of gold against the sombre setting of the southern jungle. 
Indeed, the revelation for one’s eyes is not lessstartling than 
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