WESTERN BLUEBIRD. 97 
small area and, finding an abundant supply of palatable food, feed 
upon olives to the exclusion of all other food. 
Were the hills and canyons of California as well supplied with wild 
berries as are the corresponding places in the Appalachian region, 
it is doubtful if such devastations of the olive crop would ever occur. 
Since failure of the natural food supply of the robin is only occa- 
sional and can not be anticipated in advance, no direct safeguards 
against the bird’s inroads are possible, though the planting of pepper 
and other berry-bearing trees about the orchards would materially 
aid in protecting the olive crop. The prompt and unsparing use 
of the shotgun when the emergency occurs, even though it seems to be 
the only practicable method to save the crop, is much to be deprecated, 
since the destruction of robins, which in the main are useful birds, 
is a loss to the community. 
WESTERN BLUEBIRD. 
(Sialia mexicanus occidentalis.) 
The western bluebird has the same gentle, quiet demeanor that 
characterizes its relative of the Eastern States. It has not yet, per- 
haps, become quite so domestic as that species, but still is much in- 
clined. to frequent orchards and the vicinity of farm buildings. . 
While the eastern bluebird usually nests either in a hole of an orchard 
tree or in the box specially provided for its use, the western species 
has not yet fully abandoned its habit of utilizing forest trees as nest- 
ing sites, and often may be found in lonely canyons or among the 
hills far from the abodes of man. The orchards of California 
as yet are hardly old enough to offer many hollow trees as nesting 
places of the kind so dear to the heart of our gentle friend. There 
is no reasonable doubt that in time the western species will become 
as domestic as the eastern one. A nest was found by the writer in a 
hollow tree in the home orchard of a ranch, only a few rods from the 
house. It contained six young, which would indicate that the bird 
is a prolific breeder, in this respect also resembling the eastern 
species. 
The western bluebird is less migratory than the eastern and does 
not entirely desert the United States in winter; so its good work is 
continuous. As insects are active in California in every month the 
bird is able to support life even if there is no other food. More- 
over, the insects eaten in winter count more in the reduction of these 
pests than do those taken after the spring broods are out. Insects 
that live through the winter are the stock by which. the species is 
perpetuated, and the destruction of a few at this time is equivalent 
to the death in summer of hundreds or thousands. 
' 9379—No. 30—07——7 
