412 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



the material will bear, and he holds on till the exhausted worm 

 relaxes its hold, is tossed out and pounded till fit for use. 



As the season advances a second and even a third brood of young 

 may be raised. The birds acquii'e a fondness for fruit, and now come 

 the charges against them of robbing the cherry-tree. No doubt they 

 do take a few for themselves and families, but after all they are 

 entitled to some consideration on account of the numbers of noxious 

 insects which they destroy in the garden, and for my own part I 

 would sacrifice a good many cherries rather than have the Robins 

 banished from around the house. 



Those which travel to the far north have a different experience. 

 Dr. Richardson tells us that " the male is one of the loudest and 

 most assiduous songsters which frequent the Fur Countries, beginning 

 his chant immediately on his arrival. Within the Arctic circle the 

 woods are silent during the bright light of noonday, but towards 

 inidnight when the sun travels near the horizon, and the shades of 

 the forest are lengthened, the concert commences, and continues till 

 6 or 7 in the morning. Nests have been found as high as the 54th 

 parallel of latitude about the beginning of June. The snow even 

 then partially covers the ground, but there are in these high lati- 

 tudes abundance of berries of vacciiiium ugliginosum and vites idea, 

 arbutus alpina, eTfwpetsurti nigrum, and of some other plants, which, 

 after having been frozen up all winter, are exposed by the first 

 melting of the snow, full of juice and in high flavor. Thus is formed 

 a natural cache for the supply of the birds on their arrival, and soon 

 afterwards their insect food becomes abundant." 



In Southern Ontario large numbers are seen congregating together, 

 feeding on the berries of the mountain ash, poke weed, red cedar, 

 etc. If the weather is mild, they remain till November, but usually 

 we have a cold blast from the north in October, which hurries the 

 bulk of them off to their winter-quarters in the south. 



Genus SIALIA Swainson. 

 SIALIA SIALIS (Linn.). 



316. Bluebird. (766) 



Male: — Uniform sky-blue above, reddish-brown below ; belly, white. 

 Female : — Duller. Young : — Spotted. 



Hab. — Eastern United States to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, 

 north to Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia, south, in winter, from the Middle 

 States to the Gulf States and Cuba. Bermudas, resident. 



