A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of the Audubon Societies 



Vol. VI March — April, 1904 No. 2 



A Summer With the Bluebirds 



By C. F. HODGE, Clark University 



With photographs from nature hy the author 



THE twenty-eighth of last March a Bluebird was seen in a cherry 

 tree over the study window. While he flitted down to the bird 

 bath and took a few sips of the water that had probably attracted 

 him to the spot, I quietly raised the window-sash and snapped a big meal- 

 worm far out onto the driveway. Scarcely had it touched the ground when 

 two Bluebirds swooped down upon it. I had not seen the female before, 

 and in the fluttering scramble I failed to note which bird got the worm. 

 For a minute or two you may be sure the worms fell thick and fast and the 

 two birds apparently fought for every one. They must have been famish- 

 ing, for they ate more than a dozen large mealworms apiece. At last the 

 female appeared to be satisfied and flew to a low branch of the cherry tree 

 and did not come down for the next worm. The male dropped for it, 

 however, but, instead of swallowing it, he flew to the side of his mate and 

 with a bewitching twinkle of one wing ofifered her the worm. She took it 

 from his bill ; and this scene was repeated with the next three or four worms 

 until, when he ofifered her another, she touched it daintily with her bill as 

 if to say, " They are delicious, but I really can't eat any more," and turned 

 her head away, and he swallowed the worm himself. This exquisite little 

 piece of bird etiquette was enacted five or six times, and then both birds 

 flew away. 



We christened the birds on the spot 'Twinklewing ' and 'Bluet,' but 

 feared lest we had seen the last of our new acquaintances as they drifted 

 out of sight among the tree-tops. Would they know enough to come back? 

 The question was answered within the hour by a soft flute-note from 

 the cherry tree. There they both were, evidently expecting another hail 

 of mealworms, nor were they disappointed. It was about eight o'clock 

 in the morning when my story began. I happened to be writing at my desk 

 all day and the scenes just described were repeated hourly until sundown, 



