68 The Bluebird 



assurance of the quick return of the spring beauty, 

 and wake robin, and a whole troop of songsters. 



In a day or two Lady Bluebird will arrive, a very 

 modest little woman, with less brightly colored plu- 

 mage, and more retiring manners, than her lord's. 

 Now, if you are patient, you will have an opportunity 

 to observe a most interesting courtship; for Mr. Blue- 

 bird is an attentive lover, exhibiting to his lady all 

 the charms of his beautiful plumage, singing to her 

 his sweetest songs, and feeding her with the choicest 

 bits of food to be foimd. In actual bird life it some- 

 times happens that a rival appears upon the scene, 

 and then many are the contests with voice and beak, 

 until one or the other is vanquished. After this 

 the courtship proceeds smoothly, and before long 

 the birds begin to look about for a suitable place 

 for housekeeping. 



The "bird-boxes" and small cavities in trees are 

 carefully inspected, until a spot is foimd to their 

 liking. If the birds are not interfered with, the work 

 of nest building progresses rapidly. But when the 

 bluebirds are once settled they are very determined, 

 usually succeeding in maintaining their own against 

 their enemies, of which the house wrens, and especially 

 the English sparrows, are chief. However, owing to 

 the continuous warfare waged against them by these 



