BLUEBELL 



781 



BLUE BOOKS 



BLUE 'BELL, the popular name for several 

 blue, bell-shaped flowers the bellflower, hair- 

 bell, or harebell, and others. When the name 

 is heard one 

 thinks first of the 

 lovely Scotland 



Hang - head blue- 

 bell, 



Bending like 

 Moses* sister 

 over Moses, 



Full of a secret 

 that thou dar'st 

 not tell! 



This little won- 

 der of Nature 

 melts its way 

 through snow and 

 ice by the heat' 

 it generates. In 

 England, a deli- 

 cate hyacinth- 

 like flower is 

 known as the 

 heather - bell, or 

 harebell. Hang- 

 ing downward as 

 it does, the blue- 

 bell forms a roof 

 to shield its pol- 

 len from the rains, 

 and keeps out un- 

 welcome insect- 

 visitors. But the 

 bees cling to the pistils and dip far into the 

 bells for their nectar. Bluebells make hardy 

 flower borders and are easy to cultivate. 



BLUEBERRY. See HUCKLEBERRY, subhead 

 The Blueberry. 



BLUEBIRD, a beautiful wild bird of the 

 thrush family, whose soft, pretty warble is one 

 of the earliest signs of approaching spring, as 

 Bryant tells us in his Yellow Violet: 



When beechen buds begin to swell, 



And woods the bluebird's warble know, 



The yellow violet's modest bell 



Peeps from the last year's leaves below. 



The bluebird is a North American songster 

 whose range is from Nova Scotia and Mani- 

 toba to Bermuda and the West Indies. The 

 birds, which spend the summer in Canada and 

 Northern New England, visit Virginia and the 

 Carolinas in the winter, while those of the 

 Middle States migrate farther south. From 

 March to November in the Middle and North- 

 ern states they are among the most interesting 



BLUEBELL 



THE BLUEBIRD 



and lovable of the wild birds that nest in the 

 house yard, orchard or garden. The male, 

 smartly dressed in a bright blue coat with cin- 

 namon-red trim- 

 mings, is a most 

 devoted husband, 

 though he permits 

 his active little 

 mate to do the 

 bulk of the work 

 of nest building, 

 preferring to show 

 his admiration by 

 outbursts of song 

 in her honor and 

 by bringing her 

 choice insects for 

 her bill of fare. 



The nest of the bluebird, which is placed in 

 a hollow tree, a deserted woodpecker's hole or 

 other crevice, or in a bird house, if one is at 

 hand, is not an elaborate structure, being 

 thinly lined with grass or feathers. The pale 

 blue or nearly white eggs number from four to 

 six, and two or three broods of little ones are 

 raised each season. The baby birds are black 

 at first, the blue feathers appearing by the time 

 the young wings are ready for the first flight. 

 The birds are seven inches long when full 

 grown. They feed upon spiders, grasshoppers, 

 beetles and other insects, and, as winter ap- 

 proaches, on various wild berries of the autumn 

 woods. The bluebird is the friend of the 

 farmer, and is welcomed as a destroyer of harm- 

 ful insects no less than for its cheery singing 

 and agreeable manners. See BIRD; THRUSH. 



BLUE BOOKS, the name given to official 

 reports, papers and documents printed by the 

 British government for the information of Par- 

 liament, which are so called because they are 

 bound in dark blue paper covers. They include 

 bills presented to Parliament and passed- by 

 that body; reports and papers called for by 

 members, or authorized by the government, 

 and reports of committees. In the United 

 States the name is officially applied to the 

 published lists of people in the employ of the 

 government and to the manual containing the 

 navy rules and regulations. 



In May, 1915, the United States government 

 published what was known as the White Book, 

 giving the text of the important diplomatic 

 correspondence with the governments of Europe 

 then engaged in the War of the Nations. A 

 second installment appeared in October of the 

 same year. The White Book is a valuable 



