OF NEW ENGLAND. 51 



62 of an inch, are light blue (very rarely white). Two sets 

 of 4-6 are usually laid each year in this State, of which the 

 first commonly appears about the first of May. 



(c). The familiar Blue Birds are the first birds to come 

 from their winter-homes to the Eastern States ; for they reach 

 the neighborhood of Boston, invariably no later than March, 

 and sometimes in February. They have once reached it, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Brewer, on the twenty-eighth day of January, 

 though never known to pass the winter here. In summer they 

 are very common and generally well-known throughout south- 

 ern New England, though comparatively rare to the northward, 

 as in the case with many other of our common birds. Whilst 

 migrating, they usually fly very high, and one may often be 

 apprised of their coming, before seeing them, by hearing their 

 warbled note, which they frequently utter when on wing. By 

 the middle of March they become quite common, and may be 

 seen in small companies, perched on telegraph-wires, or ridge- 

 poles of barns, on fences or trees, occasionally calling to one 

 another, or moving from place to place. Cheerless as the 

 season then is, they contrive to exist, though naturally insec- 

 tivorous, until warmer weather causes an abundance of insects ; 

 and they even mate during the cold weather, with which spring 

 is inaugurated in this part of the world. In April, they gather 

 various warm materials, and build their nests by placing them 

 in a bird-box, or at the bottom of a hole in some tree ; and in 

 these nests their eggs are laid about the first of May, when but 

 few other of our birds have begun incubation. The haunts of 

 the Blue Birds are well-known, and few naturalists can pass 

 through farms, orchards, gardens, or fields, or travel over roads 

 through cultivated lands and villages, without associating with 

 them these companions of every student of nature. The Blue 

 Birds are not only pleasant friends, but are also useful laborers 

 in behalf of agriculturists, as is proved by the nature of their 

 food, and the manner in which they obtain it. Though in the 

 early spring, and more so in fall, various berries afford them 

 nourishment, yet in May, and throughout the summer, they 

 feed quite exclusively upon insects, chiefly upon beetles, many 



