BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 317 



loves the blue-bird, and some make it a practice to encourage 

 him by providing lodgings for him, which he readily occupies, 

 and where he manifests a freedom from uneasiness, which he 

 cannot feel where his nest is more exposed. It certainly is 

 wise to encourage him ; for almost all his time is spent in 

 catching beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, and grubs, for which 

 we have seen him descending in fields, and open grounds. 

 The wire-worm is another of their luxuries, which are all 

 of a kind that man can easily spare. When they eat berries, 

 it is not those of the garden, but the sumach and wild cherry. 



Unless the hospitality of man provides the blue-bird with 

 lodgings, he resorts to hollow trees, where he shelters himself 

 from the elements, and there, or in a house made for the pur- 

 pose, the pair construct their nest ; it is a short and easy pro- 

 cess, for nothing is required but a lining of hay and feathers. 

 The eggs are from four to six, of a pale blue. Two broods, 

 and sometimes more, are raised in the season, and, while the 

 female sits on the second set of eggs, the male takes charge of 

 the young. In defence of his family he is very courageous ; 

 he has been known to attack a hen Avith chickens, who came 

 too near his abode, and put her to a hasty flight. 



During winter, the blue-birds abound in the southern states, 

 and particularly in the Floridas, which, however, they leave as 

 early as possible. But they do not go very far to the north. 

 In Maine they are not common, and in Labrador not one was 

 seen by Audubon's party. Towards autumn, their song is no 

 longer heard, except one complaining note in which they seem 

 to lament the necessity of leaving their home. To the last 

 moment they linger, and it is not till the trumpet of the storm 

 indicates that the hosts of winter are upon them, that they will 

 consent to bid us farewell. 



The BROWN LARK, Anthus spinoletta, is one of those birds 

 which arrive from the north, without much to indicate whence 

 they came or whither they are going. They are common in 

 fields in the country, and are said to be equally so along the 

 borders of rivers and the Atlantic shores. They fly in loose 



