Plate XII 



SIALIA SIALIS-Easfern Bluebird. 



Bluebirds remain in the state in small numbers throughout the winter, and whenever a bright day 

 occurs they warble their plaintive call-notes, so suggestive of "sunshine and pleasure." Even those that 

 seek winter-residences in a milder climate, seemingly ever-mindful of the golden days of their native 

 country, often return prematurely to their former homes, and as early as January or February, while 

 nature is yet ice-bound and cheerless, these hardy little Tnigrants may be seen patiently awaiting the 

 coming spring. 



Although they may pair in February or March, and even choose the locality for the nest, oviposi- 

 tion does not generally take place before the last of April or the first of May. Two broods, and some- 

 times three, are raised in one summer. 



LOCALITY: 



The nest is universally placed in a cavity; usually in a tree or stump standing alone in a meadow 

 or cultivated field, in a detached clump, or in a piece of sparsedly timbered land. Trees in the interior 

 of thick woods are seldom selected. Old orchard-trees, on account of their numerous decayed trunks 

 and limbs; deserted Woodpecker-holes, wherever they may be; bird-boxes, when suitably situated; and 

 the various crevices about city and country dwellings, are favorite sites for building. 



POSITION" : 



The nest, which sometimes is hardly worthy of the name, is ordinarily supported by the floor, and 

 shaped at the sides by the walls of the cavity; but when the excavation is large, like the interior of 

 a stump, with only a small entrance, it may rest simply in a slight hollow wallowed-ont by the bird in 

 the soft debris of decayed wood. Its distance from the ground is usually between five and ten feet. 

 I have, however, known it to be a few inches below the surface, in a small stump; and again, in an 

 unoccupied Flicker's nest, near the top of a large sycamore. 



AlATERIALS : 



The materials in all the nests which I have examined were blades of grass, timothy-stalks, short 

 pieces of stubble, and fine weed-stems combined in various proportions, the grasses generally forming the 

 bulk of the structures. Sometimes feathers from the poultry-yard, wool, pieces of string, and like 

 substances are used as a lining. The quantity of material is not great— just enough is employed to 

 make a soft and slightly concave resting-place for the eggs. When the same cavity is occupied for a 

 number of years, as is frequently the case, the nests may accumulate to the depth of six or eight inches; 

 and, as the addition of each year is lighter in shade than that of the previous one, the number of sep- 

 arate structures may be easily counted. The old nest, however, is, as a rule, torn to pieces and car- 

 ried away. 



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