80 BLUEBIRD. 
to its peculiar wealth of color: on its back the tint of heaven when clearest and most 
beautiful, on its breast the brown of the earth! 
When in the primeval forest arises the simple log cabin of the early settler, it is 
the Bluebird that first greets the new-comer with gentle warbling welcome as it flies 
from stump to stump.—Only too often the Mockingbird, the Robin, the Catbird, the 
Baltimore Oriole are driven from our gardens by ungrateful people, because these birds 
claim, as a well-deserved tribute for their work as insect destroyers, a few strawberries, 
cherries, and other small fruit. But it is impossible to accuse the sprightly Bluebird of 
the same misdemeanor. It is in no manner whatever injurious; on the contrary, the 
benefit resulting from the destruction of incalculable numbers of noxious insects, is be- 
yond estimation. 
The Bluebird retains with wonderful tenacity the domain which it has once chosen 
for its nest. Jealously every other bird of the same species is driven from the selected 
territory. When mating begins, two males often attack each other with such vehemence 
that they whirl down to the ground together and there easily fall a prey to prowling 
cats. The vigilant male boldly attacks every enemy that attempts to approach his nest. 
When, in boyhood, I examined nests, the old birds often flew into my face. By his fear- 
less assaults the male frightens away many a small robber from his home. Nevertheless, 
innumerable broods are annually destroyed by Blue Jays and snakes. A still more 
dangerous enemy is the European Sparrow now so common in and near our cities 
and towns. It is a well known fact that in the same ratio as the Sparrow increases 
the number of our familiar native birds, especially such as breed in boxes, decreases. 
I have observed Sparrows, time and time again, taking possession of the boxes put up 
for the Bluebirds. Even when a bird box has been occupied for several weeks by its 
rightful owners, these foreign vagabonds try to take possession of it. First they come 
in pairs, but they are generally driven off by the brave male. Then they usually renew 
their assault in screaming crowds, and, in spite of a courageous defense, the poor Blue- 
birds are obliged to yield to the superior force, and leave their much-loved home. 
I am not alone in these observations: they are confirmed by almost all our orni- 
thologists. It is a matter of fact that at the present time where the Sparrow is so 
abundant, a nesting pair of Bluebirds is rarely found in the parks and gardens of our 
cities and towns. Where once the soft warbling of these familiar and beautiful birds 
filled the air from dawn to sunset, we hear to-day only the discordant notes of the im- 
pudent foreign intruder. Prof. Robert Ridgway, in speaking of the song birds in Europe 
and America, denies that our beautiful country is deficient in songsters as compared 
with Europe. “It appears,” he says, “that the apparent deficiency of singing birds in 
the United States is an artificial rather than a natural condition, characteristic, so far 
as the settled or cultivated portions are concerned, of the more densely inhabited centers, 
where birds have been actually driven off by the persecutions of the pot-hunter, to whom 
anything with feathers is game, and by the indifference of the population in general. 
There can be no question that the boxes put up in the parks of our larger cities for the 
imported European House Sparrow, which has not a single commendable quality, would 
have attracted Bluebirds and House Wrens, two of our most attractive and useful birds, 
until these would by the present time have become as common and familiar as their 
