BIRDS OF PEASEMARSH 



There were Bluebirds then, as there are now, 

 but the Indians called them "specks of sky," 

 and fragments of a legend have been indirectly 

 handed down. It seems that when the birds 

 received their clothing from the Great Spirit, 

 the Bluebirds, having a maimed one in their 

 family, were delayed on their way and arrived 

 at the spot where the Great Spirit had sent the 

 clothes just after all the feathers had been 

 chosen by other birds. Then the Great Spirit 

 said, because they had not deserted their weak 

 birdling they should be clothed in fragments of 

 the covering of his tent in the sky, and bits of 

 the blue came down, taking the form of 

 feathers, and sunset shades for their breasts. 



The Bluebirds chose the house on the elm as 

 their home one cold April morning, just after 

 it was put up, and they have held it ever since, 

 though the Sparrows tried their utmost to put 

 them out. Judging from their apparent satis- 

 faction at finding it, they had had a long weary 

 search for a safe and suitable nesting place. 



It was a pair of tiny Wrens that first drew 

 our attention to the need of nest boxes for the 

 birds. For several years these Wrens had 

 nested just under the roof of the front veran- 



[6] 



