APPENDIX, 145 
BLueEBIRD. — Contin. 
into this simple ditty, and with an ecstatic feeling of delight he often 
raises and quivers his wings like the mocking Orpheus; and amidst his 
striving rivals in song, exerts his utmost powers to introduce variety into 
his unborrowed and simple strain.” — Nuttall, T.: Manual of the Ornith. of 
the U. S, and Canada, 2d ed. (Land-birds), pp. 510-511. 
Bluebird and Robin. 
The hold that these familiar heralds of spring have on 
the heart is well illustrated by passages in “ Birds of Bering 
Sea and the Arctic Ocean,” by E. W. Nelson. One can 
hardly imagine the effect of a tuneful bird-song in a region 
so desolate and cold that the croak of the raven sounds 
sweeter there than the warbling of the nightingale heard 
from out its native boughs. 
“Tt is a pleasant experience for one in a far-off region like this to come 
across the familiar forms known in other days. The sight of this bird 
gleaning its food about the houses on a frosty spring morning in May car- 
ries one’s mind back from sterile Arctic scenery to the blossoming orchards, 
the hum of bees, and such other pleasant sounds and sights of Nature as 
go to make up a beautiful spring day in lower latitudes. One misses, how- 
ever, the warbling strain of the bluebird, and the cheerless surroundings 
soon bring the stern reality too closely home. The birds, too, seem im- 
pressed with the gloomy surroundings, and I have never heard them utter 
their notes during the time of their visits to the sea-coast. In the wooded 
interior, however, they regain their spirits and rear their young even 
north of the circle; and here their cheering notes enliven the wooded 
river-courses during the long summer days, in striking contrast to the 
silence of a few months earlier, when a deathly hush made the shadows of 
the forests a fitting haunt for the wolf and wolverines. 
“There is no record of the occurrence of the robin in Northeastern 
Asia that I have found, although as before mentioned it undoubtedly is a 
casual visitant to that region. Elliott found a single bird wind-bound 
upon the Seal Islands, beyond which there is no record of its occurrence 
on any of the islands in Bering Sea.”—Nelson, E. W.: Birds of Bering 
Sea and the Arctic Ocean. (U.S. Pab. Docs., Cruise of Corwin, 1881.) 
For description of Robin’s song, see Higginson, T. W.: Out-door 
Papers, p. 305. 
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