BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS 



The Bluebird 



(Sialia sialis) Thrush family 



Called also: BLUt ROBIN 



Length—'] inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. 



Afale — Upper parts, wings, and tail bright blue, with rusty wash 

 in autumn. Throat, breast, and sides cinnamon-red. Under- 

 neath white. 



Female — Has duller blue feathers, washed with gray, and a paler 

 breast than male. 



Range — North America, from Nova Scotia and Manitoba to Gulf 

 of Mexico. Southward in winter from Middle States to Ber- 

 muda and West Indies. 



Migrations — March. November. Summer resident. A few some- 

 times remain throughout the winter. 



With the first soft, plaintive warble of the bluebirds early in 

 March, the sugar camps, waiting for their signal, take on a bust- 

 ling activity; the farmer looks to his plough; orders are hurried 

 off to the seedsmen ; a fever to be out of doors seizes one : spring 

 is here. Snowstorms may yet whiten fields and gardens, high 

 winds may howl about the trees and chimneys, but the little blue 

 heralds persistently proclaim from the orchard and garden that 

 the spring procession has begun to move. Tru-al-ly, tru-al-ly, 

 they sweetly assert to our incredulous ears. 



The bluebird is not always a migrant, except in the more 

 northern portions of the country. Some representatives there are 

 always with us, but the great majority winter south and drop out 

 of the spring procession on its way northward, the males a little 

 ahead of their mates, which show housewifely instincts imme- 

 diately after their arrival. A pair of these rather undemonstrative, 

 matter-of-fact lovers go about looking for some deserted wood- 

 pecker's hole in the orchard, peering into cavities in the fence- 



99 



