164 BLUE-BIRD. 



having recourse to all the trumpery of holes and caverns, torpidity, 

 hybernation, and such ridiculous improbabilities. 



Nothing is more common in Pennsylvania than to see large flocks of 

 these birds in spring and fall, passing, at considerable heights in the air ; 

 from the south in the former, and from the north in the latter season. 

 I have seen, in the month of October, about an hour after sun-rise, ten 

 or fifteen of them descend from a great height and settle on the top of 

 a tall detached tree, appearing, from their silence and sedateness, to be 

 strangers, and fatigued. After a pause of a fevf minutes they began to 

 dress and arrange their plumage, and continued so employed for ten or 

 fifteen minutes more ; then, on a few warning notes being given, perhaps 

 by the leader of the party, the whole remounted to a vast height, steer- 

 ing in a direct line for the south-west. In passing along the chain of 

 the Bahamas towards the West Indies, no great difficulty can occur from 

 the frequency of these islands ; nor even to the Bermudas, which are 

 said to be 600 miles from the nearest part of the continent. This may 

 seem an extraordinary flight for so small a bird ; but it is nevertheless a 

 fact that it is performed. If we suppose the Blue-bird in this case to 

 fly only at the rate of a mile per minute, which is less than I have 

 actually ascertained him to do over land, ten or eleven hours would be 

 sufficient to accomplish the journey ; besides the chances he would have 

 of resting places by the way, from the number of vessels that generally 

 navigate those seas. In like manner two days at most, allowing for 

 numerous stages for rest, would conduct him from the remotest regions 

 of Mexico to any part of the Atlantic States. When the natural history 

 of that part of the continent and its adjacent isles, are better known, 

 and the periods at which its birds of passage arrive and depart, are 

 truly ascertained, I have no doubt but these suppositions will be fully 

 corroborated. 



