BIRDS OF NEW YORK 537 



Sialia sialis sialis (Linnaeus) 

 Bluebird 



Plate 106 



Motacilla sialis Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:187 



Sialia wilsoni DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 65, fig. 98 



Sialia sialis sialis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 366. No. 766 



sialia, Gr., uiaXi's, a bird so called from its slavering or sibilant note; sialis, " To 

 call this Anacreon a slobberer! " (Coues). To double call him that is infamy 



Description. Male: Upper parts rich azure blue; throat, breast and 

 sides chestnut rufous; belly white. Female: Considerably paler, but pure 

 azure blue on the rump, tail and wings; rest of the upper parts are grayish 

 blue. Young in first plumage: Upper parts streaked along the shaft lines 

 with whitish ; under parts closely freckled with brownish and white ; a dis- 

 tinct white eye ring. 



Length 6.5-7 inches; extent 12-13; wing 3.75-4; tail 2.75-3; bill .25; 

 tarsus .7. ' 



Distribution. Breeds from southern Manitoba, northern Ontario, 

 southern Quebec and Newfoundland, south to Texas and the gulf coast; 

 winters from the Ohio valley and Middle. States to the gulf; resident in 

 Bermuda. In New York the Bluebird is a common summer resident of 

 all parts of the State and locally a winter resident in the coastal district 

 and the lower Hudson valley. In western New York I have never seen 

 a Bluebird in midwinter, but it may occasionally remain in sheltered 

 cedar swamps, as it does in the coastal district. Spring migration begins 

 in southeastern New York from the loth to the 15th of February, in 

 exceptional seasons not till March 10. In western New York it very 

 rarely arrives before the first of March, the average date being March 12, 

 sometimes not till March 22. Several records of arrival before me are 

 in the last week of February. One year (1906) I noticed bluebirds com- 

 mon on the 24th of February at Ithaca, Geneva, Canandaigua and 

 Rochester. In the fall they disappear from the i6th to the 29th of October, 

 sometimes remaining until the loth of November or even later. 



During the severe winter of 1895, the bluebirds of our northeastern 

 states were decimated. The following summer I made a careful search 



