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Mr. C. William Beebe,



It is a soft sweet warble of two or three syllables, almost im¬

possible to put into words but easy to imitate by whistling.


Soon the winter flocks pass northward but we never miss

them for their place is taken by others from the south, and this

all but imperceptible shifting migration goes on until one morn¬

ing we see a pair of Bluebirds flying about the hollow in the old

apple tree, and we know that the summer residents have arrived.


The courtship is ardent but quickly over and both sexes

begin to carry grasses and feathers to the hollow limb or bird-

box selected as a nesting site. The song is far from elaborate,

being only variations on the call-note, its charm due to the

softness and richness of the mellow tones. With the coming of

insect life the Bluebird changes its diet and becomes wholly

insectivorous. Its favourite haunt is a more or less open, field¬

like country with scattered bushes and trees. From the summit

of a fence-post or low bush it watches the grass and at intervals

flies down, snatches a grasshopper or beetle, and is back again.


If a bird box with a hole in the side is set up on a fence or

tree it is almost sure to be occupied by a pair of these birds,

except where English Sparrows are numerous. Then the Blue¬

birds have but small chance, and are usually driven away.


About mid-April the warblings of the male cease—a sign

that the bird has a nest near at hand. In June, after the young

have flown, a brief second season of song may accompany the

rather perfunctory renewal of courtship at this time. Even a

third brood is not rare, and with the great mortality due to cats,

small boys, the elements and other factors of the environment,

three broods are none too many to perpetuate the species. Four

to six pale bluish white eggs are laid. The same nesting site is

reoccupied year after year by the same birds, when by a stroke of

good fortune these survive the perils of the southward migration.


The young birds, as is well-known, clearly reveal their

turdine relationship by the spots and mottlings on breast and

back. They linger for some time in the vicinity of their home

and occasionally a youngster of the first brood, still in his juvenile

dress, will help feed the nestlings of the second. This unusual

altruism is tolerated but unfortunately neither encouraged nor

apparently appreciated by the hard-working parents ! When the



