BLUEBIRD. 



Jlllegretto. sempre legato et tremolo. 



, f , f 



One of the most extraordinary effects of color I have 

 ever witnessed in my life was exhibited by a Bluebird 

 in full sunlight relieved against the sombre background 

 of a thunder-cloud. It was in Middlebury, Vt. , late in 

 the afternoon when the sun shone slanting across the 

 lawn adjoining the residence of a friend. He pointed 

 out the bird to me, and upon viewing it through my 

 opera-glass ft was more than amazed. The breast was a 

 light, aesthetic red suggestive of the conch-shell's color; 

 the shoulders were a vivid turquoise blue! The feathers 

 had an iridescent effect enhanced by a tiny flash of 

 brilliant white which was the touch of the sun's strong 

 rays upon the back of a black beetle held in the bird's 

 mouth. What a revelation of color it was ! I wondered 

 at the time whether any one would believe it if I painted 

 it; "most likely they would not," I said to myself, 

 "that would be the penalty for reporting Nature in one 

 of her eccentric moods! " It is difficult to believe in such 

 color mostly because of its strange brilliance. Neverthe- 

 less, in the strong sunlight, the wonderful orange cadmium 

 hue of the Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea), a 

 common species of the Mississippi Valley, is like a gleam 

 of gold against the sombre setting of the southern jungle. 

 Indeed, the revelation for one's eyes is not less startling than 



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