Blue and Bluish 



rails, or into the bird-houses that, once set up in the old-fashioned 

 gardens for their special benefit, are now appropriated too often 

 by the ubiquitous sparrow. Wrens they can readily dispossess of 

 an attractive tenement, and do. With a temper as heavenly as 

 the color of their feathers, the bluebird's sense of justice is not 

 always so adorable. But sparrows unnerve them into cowardice. 

 The comparatively infrequent nesting of the bluebirds about our 

 homes at the present time is one of the most deplorable results 

 of unrestricted sparrow immigration. Formerly they were the 

 commonest of bird neighbors. 



Nest-building is not a favorite occupation with the bluebirds, 

 that are conspicuously domestic none the less. Two, and even 

 three, broods in a season fully occupy their time. As in most 

 cases, the mother-bird does more than her share of the work. 

 The male looks with wondering admiration at the housewifely 

 activity, applauds her with song, feeds her as she sits brooding 

 over the nestful of pale greenish-blue eggs, but his adoration of 

 her virtues does not lead him into emulation. 



" Shifting his light load of song, 

 From post to post along the cheerless fence," 



Lowell observed that he carried his duties quite as lightly. 



When the young birds first emerge from the shell they are 

 almost black ; they come into their splendid heritage of color by 

 degrees, lest their young heads might be turned. It is only as 

 they spread their tiny wings for their first flight from the nest 

 that we can see a few blue feathers. 



With the first cool days of autumn the bluebirds collect in 

 flocks, often associating with orioles and kingbirds in sheltered, 

 sunny places where insects are still plentiful. Their steady, undu- 

 lating flight now becomes erratic as they take food on the wing 

 a habit that they may have learned by association with the king- 

 birds, for they have also adopted the habit of perching upon some 

 conspicuous lookout and then suddenly launching out into the 

 air for a passing fly and returning to their perch. Long after their 

 associates have gone southward, they linger like the last leaves on 

 the tree. It is indeed "good-bye to summer" when the blue- 

 birds withdraw their touch of brightness from the dreary Novem- 

 ber landscape. 



The bluebirds from Canada and the northern portions of New 



100 



