86 BLUE BIRD. 



This species has often reminded me of the Robin Redbreast of 

 Europe, to which it bears a considerable resemblance in form and habits. 

 Like the Blue Bird the Redbreast has large eyes, in which the power of 

 its passions are at times seen to be expressed. Like it also, he alights on 

 the lower branches of a tree, where, standing in the same position, he peeps 

 sidewise at the objects beneath and around, until spying a grub or an 

 insect, he launches lightly towards it, picks it up, and gazes around in- 

 tent on discovering more, then takes a few hops with a downward incli- 

 nation of the body, stops, erects himself, and should not another insect be 

 near, returns to the branch, and tunes his throat anew. Perhaps it may 

 have been on account of having observed something of this similarity of 

 habits, that the first settlers in Massachusetts named our bird the Blue 

 Robin, a name which it still retains in that state. 



Were I now engaged in forming an arrangement of the birds of our 

 country, I might conceive it proper to assign the Blue Bird a place among 

 the Thrushes. 



MoTACiLLA SiALis, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 336. 



Sylvia Sialis, Lath. Index Ornith. vol. ii. p. 523. 



Saxicox A Sialis, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 80. 



Erythaca (Sialia) Wilsonii, Swains, and Richards. Fauna Bor. Anicr. part ii. 



p. 210. 

 Blue Bird, Sylvia Sialis, Wils. Amer. Ornith. voL i. p. 60. pi. iii. fig. 5. Male. 



Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 444. 



Adult Male. Plate CXIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill of ordinary length, nearly straight, broader than deep at the 

 base, compressed towards the end ; upper mandible with the dorsal line 

 convex, the tip declinate, the edges sharp. Nostrils basal, oval. Head 

 rather large, neck short, body rather full. Feet of ordinary length, 

 slender ; tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with a few long scutella, 

 acute behind, scarcely longer than the middle toe ; toes scutellate above 

 the two lateral ones nearly equal ; claws arched, slender, compressed, 

 that of the hind toe much larger. 



Plumage soft and blended, slightly glossed. Wings of ordinary 

 length, broad, the first quill longest, the second scarcely shorter, the se- 

 condary quills truncato-emarginate. Tail rather long, broad, nearly 



