190 WAKE-ROBIN 
found his Bermuda on some broad sunny hillside 
thickly studded with cedars and persimmon-trees. 
In New York and in New England the sap starts 
up in the sugar maple the very day the bluebird 
arrives, and sugar-making begins forthwith. The 
bird is generally a mere disembodied voice; a rumor 
in the air for two or three days before it takes visi- 
ble shape before you. The males are the pioneers, 
and come several days in advance of the females. 
By the time both are here and the pair have begun 
to prospect for a place to nest, sugar-making is 
over, the last vestige of snow has disappeared, and 
the plow is brightening its mould-board in the new 
furrow. 
The bluebird enjoys the preéminence of being the 
first bit of color that cheers our northern landscape. 
The other birds that arrive about the same time — 
the sparrow, the robin, the phcebe-bird—are clad 
in neutral tints, -gray, brown, or russet; but the 
bluebird brings one of the primary hues and the 
divinest of them all. 
This bird also has the distinction of answering 
very nearly to the robin redbreast of English mem- 
ory, and was by the early settlers of New England 
christened the blue robin. 
It is a size or two larger, and the ruddy hue of 
its breast does not verge so nearly on an orange, but 
the manners and habits of the two birds are very 
much alike. Our bird has the softer voice, but 
the English redbreast is much the more skilled 
musician, He has indeed a fine, animated warble, 
