174 BIRDS OF BERMUDA. 
The Bluebird is one of the resident species, and is very common. It 
is also migratory, arriving in small flocks after heavy gales in the winter 
months. Colonel Wedderburn observed them in large flocks at Ireland 
Island on January 5, 1848; and my friend Mr. J. M. Jones records 
their appearance in smaller bands in the Novembers of 1866 and 1871. 
I have frequently noticed a sudden increase in the numbers of this spe- 
cies in the winter, but the visitors appear to leave again in the early 
spring, taking with them doubtless some of their ’Mudian brethren, for 
no perceptible accession of strength is apparent during the ensuing 
summer, and, as will presently be seen in a quotation from Mr. Hurdis’ 
notes, so many occasionally take their departure as to cause a percep- 
tible diminution in the numbers of the resident birds. 
Mr. Bartram, an excellent authority, inclines to the belief that they do 
not migrate, but merely collect into flocks for the winter, but with all due 
deference to him I think the following account by Mr. Hurdis is suffi- 
cient to prove their migratory habits in the islands. ‘‘Although this 
beautiful and familiar bird appears to be a permanent resident in the 
Bermudas, vast flights of them sometimes arrive from the American 
coast. This was particularly the case as observed by Colonel Wedder- 
burn in the winter months of 1848. In December, 1849, I fell in with 
a large flock of these birds in Paget Parish. There was an appearance 
of wildness and vigor about them which convinced me they were 
strangers. A small party of eight or ten birds of a different species 
was observed in the midst of these Bluebirds, moving with the flock from 
place to place. I contrived to get within range of the small party and 
brought down one specimen, which proved to be a Cedar Waxwing 
(A. cedrorum), in beautiful plumage, but wanting the waxen appendages 
to the secondaries. It was, consequently, a young bird of that year. 
Now the Cedar Waxwing is a rare visitant in the Bermudas and is never 
known to breed there. These Cedar-birds, then, must have arrived 
recently in these islands, and in all probability had traversed the ocean 
in company with the flock of Bluebirds they were associating with. 
‘There is reason to believe that numbers of the native Bluebirds leave 
the Bermudas with these large migratory flocks, thereby causing, as in 
the summer of 1851, a comparative scarcity of that bird ; indeed, but 
for this supposed movement, it would be difficult to account for the 
annual increase of the native birds. 
This is, to my mind, the most delightful of birds, and certainly the 
flower of the limited flock of Bermuda residents ; its brilliant plumage, 
