572 



BLUCHER BLUEBIRD. 



gained a signal advantage over marshal Mannont, nt 

 Mockern, iurcing his way as tiir n^ the suburb-, o; 

 Leipsic. On the 18lh, in connexion with thccrown- 

 prir.ce of Sweden, he contributed greatly to the de- 

 feat of the enemy, and on the I'.uli, his troops made 

 the first assault upon Leipsic. His promptitude and 

 peculiar mnnner of attacking had already, in Uie be- 

 ginning of the campaign, procured him from the 

 Russians the name of marshal i'onntnl. From that 

 time it became his name of honour throughout the 

 whole German territory. Jan. 1, 18 14-, with the Si- 

 lesian army, which now consisted of two Prussian, 

 two Russian, one Ilesvan and one mixed corps, he 

 crossed the Rhine at Kaub, took possession of Nancy 

 on the 1 7tli, gained, Feb. I, tin- battle of La Ro- 

 thiere, and pushed forward towards Paris. His de- 

 tached corps were, however, checked by Napoleon ; 

 yet B., though with a great loss, effected his retreat 

 towards Chalons. He then crossed the Aisne at 

 Soissons. joined the northern anny, obtained, March 

 \>. ;i victory over Napoleon at Laon, and, in connexion 

 witli Schwartzenberg, at the close of the month, 

 pressed forward to Paris. The day of Mont mart re 

 crowned this campaign, and, March 31, B. elite-red 

 the capital of France. His king, in remembrance of 

 the victory which he had gained near Wahlstadt, 

 made htm prince of Wahlstadt, with a suitable in- 

 come. In K:igland, whither he followed the allied 

 monarchs, in June of the same year, he was received 

 by the people with enthusiasm. The university of 

 Oxford conferred on him the degree of doctor of laws. 

 He afterwards lived on his estates in Silesia, till 

 1815, when the chief command was again committed 

 to him, and he led his army into the Netherlands. 

 June 15, Napoleon threw himself upon him, and B., 

 on the 16th, was defeated at Ligny. In this engage- 

 ment, his horse was killed, and he was thrown under 

 his body. After this unfortunate, yet honourable day, 

 the tnie greatness of the field-marshal and his army 

 became apparent. In the battle of the 18th, B. ar- 

 rived at the most decisive moment, upon the ground, 

 and, taking Napoleon in the rear and flank, gained, 

 in union with Wellington, the great victory ot Belle 

 Alliance, or Waterloo, (q. v.). He refused the prof- 

 fered armistice, and forced Paris to surrender; op- 

 posing with energy, on this second conquest of the 

 capital, the system of ''forbearance practised on the 

 former occasion. As he was already a knight of all 

 the military orders of Europe, the king of Prussia, 

 to reward his new services, created a new order ex- 

 pressly for him. After the peace of Paris, the prince 

 retired to his estates. Aug. 26, 1819, the anniver- 

 sary of the battle on the Katzbach, the hero received 

 at Rostock, his native place, an honour which is sel- 

 dom bestowed in Germany. The whole body of his 

 countrymen, the inhabitants of Meckle'nburg, united 

 to erect a monument commemorating his glory, exe- 

 cuted by Schadow in Berlin. B. died, after a short 

 illness, at his estate of Kriblowitz, in Silesia, Sept. 12, 

 1819, aged almost seventy-seven years. June 18, 

 1826, a statue of bronze was erected to him, in Ber- 

 lin, twelve feet in height, modelled by Rauch, and 

 cast by Le Quine and Reisinger. B. was not so emi- 

 nent for military science as for ability in action. He 

 himself often acknowledged this, when he was prais- 

 ing the merits of Gneisenau, to whose assistance he 

 was greatly indebted. In battle, however, he had 

 the eye of a falcon. His simplicity, good-nature, and 

 bravery endeared him to his soldiers, who loved him 

 like a father. His addresses and proclamations are 

 distinguished for their brevity, precision, and simpli- 

 city, forming a striking contrast to the high-sounding 

 French proclamations of the time. (See BluecAer's 

 Lelensbcsctireibung (Blucher's Life), by Varnhagen 

 von Ense, Berlin, 1827.) 



BLUE. See Colour. 



ttltic, Prussian ; a colouring matter, of a pure 

 dark-blue colour, a dull fracture, inodorous and in- 

 sipid, insoluble in water, spirits of wine, or ether; 

 it is soluble only by the action of corrosive alkalies. 

 The discovery of this colour \v;;s accidentally made, 

 in 1704, by Diesbach, a manufacturer of colours, 

 who, with the intention of precipitating the colouring 

 matter from cochineal, with which alum ;,n.l vitriol 

 of iron were dissolved, procured some alkali from the. 

 laboratory of Dippel. This alkali, which Dippel hud 

 been heating with some animal matter, produced a 

 beautiful blue precipitate. Dippel, discoM ring that 

 the alkali had acquired this power of forming a blue 

 precipitate of iron on account of its mixture wiih ani- 

 mal oil, soon learned to prepare it in a more simple 

 way, since all animal substances, and even all vege- 

 tables, which contain much azote, will give the same 

 result. It is, however, necessary, that all the mate- 

 rials should be perfectly pure, since the purification 

 would be too expensive. The addition of alum gives 

 to this blue more body and a brighter colour. This 

 blue substance is a prussiate of iron (52 parts red 

 oxyde of iron, and 48 of prussic acid). The alumine 

 added amounts to from 20 to 80 per cent. ; but the 

 greater the quantity, the poorer is the quality of the 

 blue. 



BLUEBIRD (sylvia^sialis, Wilson; saxicola stalls, 

 Bonaparte). This beautiful little bird is one of the 

 earliest messengers of spring in America, and is oc- 

 casionally seen as early as the month of February, in 

 mild seasons. The middle of March is the ordinary 

 time of mating, when the male bluebird is observed 

 to be extremely devoted to the female, and shows 

 the ardour of his attachment by every attention in 

 his power, by the rapturous animation of his song, 

 and the angry jealousy with which he repels the ap- 

 proaches or a rival. The nest of the former year is 

 then repaired, and the female begins to lay her eggs, 

 usually five, sometimes six, of a pale-blue colour. 

 Two or three broods are raised in a season, the 

 youngest of which are taken care of by the male, 

 while the mother is still attending to the nest The 

 principal food of this species is insects, especially 

 large beetles, and other hard-wing or coleopterous 

 bugs, to be found about dead or rotting trees : ber- 

 ries, persimmon, and the seeds of various plants, are 

 also discovered in their stomachs. Large and numer- 

 ous tape- worms infest their bowels, and they are also 

 exceedingly annoyed by vermin externally. Wilson 

 says, that, in this respect, they are more plagued than 

 any other bird, except the woodcock. The spring 

 and summer song of the bluebird is a soft and often- 

 repeated warble : in the month of October, his song 

 changes to a single plaintive note. About the mid- 

 dle of November, the bluebirds disappear, though, 

 occasionally, one or two may be seen during the 

 winter, in mild weather. The manners of this species 

 are so gentle, and they render so much service by the 

 destruction of insects, that they are always regarded 

 with favour by the farmer. The male bluebird is 

 six inches and three quarters long, with very full and 

 broad wings. All the upper parts are of a rich sky- 

 blue, with purple reflections: the bill and legs are 

 black. The female is easily known by the duller 

 cast of the plumage on the back, and by the red on 

 the breast not descending so low as in the male, and 

 being much fainter. The bluebird inhabits the whole 

 of the United States, also Mexico, Brazil, Guiana, 

 and the Bahama islands. Wilson states that " no- 

 thing is more common, in Pennsylvania, than to see 

 large flocks of these birds, in the spring and fall, 

 passing at considerable heights in the air, from the 

 south in the former, and from the north in the latter 

 beason. I have seen, in the month of October, about 



