58 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



But in the spring all is changed. The parents tell 

 the young in a very peremptory manner that they must 

 now seek new homes. Sometimes the young are quite 

 persistent about remaining, when the parents at last 

 seem to become exasperated, and drive them fiercely 

 from the premises. 



During the summer of 1880 I was particularly inter- 

 ested in a pair of bluebirds which had the misfortune 

 to rear but one brood of three during the season. The 

 young were hatched in a little house fastened to the 

 railing of an upper piazza. They became quite tame, 

 and remained with us until the first week in December. 

 After this I saw them no more until the first day of 

 January, 1881, when, to my surprise, the entire family 

 came to my study window — a bay-window fronting 

 south — and perched upon the sill. The mercury stood 

 fifteen degrees below zero on this morning, an unusual 

 temperature for our latitude. 



I have found that an intensely cold day will drive 

 both robins and bluebirds from their retreat in the ce- 

 dars to our homes, as if they hoped for better protec- 

 tion against the cold. 



Our little family had accompanied a sorry - looking 

 flock of forty or fifty bluebirds, with ruffled feathers, 

 which had halted in the vineyard near the house on 

 this bitter morning. 



By ten o'clock the sun shone brightly against the 

 window-glass, and the warm fire within helped to make 

 the window-sill comfortable; and here all five of the 



