BLUEBIRD. 289 



tion of his devoted consort, he avoids betraying the resort of 

 his charge by a cautious and silent interest in their fate. Gen- 

 tle, peaceable, and familiar when undisturbed, his society is 

 courted by every lover of rural scenery j and it is not un- 

 common for the farmer to furnish the Bluebird with a box, as 

 well as the Martin, in return for the pleasure of his company, 

 the destruction he makes upon injurious insects, and the cheer- 

 fulness of his song. Confident in this protection, he shows 

 but little alarm for his undisturbed tenement; while in the 

 remote orchard, expecting no visitor but an enemy, in com- 

 pany with his anxious mate he bewails the approach of the 

 intruder, and flying round his head and hands, appears by his 

 actions to call down all danger upon himself rather than suffer 

 any injury to arrive to his helpless brood. 



Towards autumn, in the month of October, his cheerful song 

 nearly ceases, or is now changed into a single plaintive note 

 of tshdy-wit, while he passes with his flitting companions over 

 the fading woods ; and as his song first brought the welcome 

 intelligence of spring, so now his melancholy plaint presages 

 but too truly the silent and mournful decay of Nature. Even 

 when the leaves have fallen, and the forest no longer affords a 

 shelter from the blast, the faithful Bluebirds still finger over 

 their native fields, and only take their departure in November, 

 when at a considerable elevation, in the early twilight of the 

 morning, till the opening of the day, they wing their way in 

 small roving troops to some milder regions in the South. But 

 yet, after this period, in the Middle States, with every return 

 of moderate weather we hear their sad note in the fields or in 

 the air, as if deploring the ravages of winter ; and so frequent 

 are their visits that they may be said to follow fair weather 

 through all their wanderings till the permanent return of spring. 



If the Bluebird ever tried the climate of Labrador, it evidently 

 discovered that the weather there was not suitable, for now it rarely 

 goes north of latitude 45°. A few pairs are seen every season 

 about the farm-lands on the upper St. John, in New Brunswick, 

 and Philip Cox has seen several at Newcastle, near the mouth of 

 the Miramichi. Comeau found a pair breeding at Godbout, and 

 Thompson reports that they have lately entered Manitoba. 



VOL. I. — 19 



