OF NEW ENGLAND. 51 
*62 of an inch, are light blue (very rarely white). Two sets 
of 4-6 are usually laid each year in this State, of which the 
first commonly appears about the first of May. 
(c). The familiar Blue Birds are the, first birds to come 
from their winter-homes to the Eastern States; for they reach 
the neighborhood of Boston, invariably no later than March, 
and sometimes in February. They have once reached it, ac- 
cording to Dr. Brewer, on the twenty-eighth day of January, 
though never known to pass the winter here. In summer they 
are very common and generally well-known throughout south- 
ern New England, though comparatively rare to the northward, 
as in the case with many other of our common birds. Whilst 
migrating, they usually fly very high, and one may often be 
apprised of their coming, before seeing them, by hearing their 
warbled note, which they frequently utter when on wing. By 
the middle of March they become quite common, and may be 
seen in small companies, perched on telegraph-wires, or ridge- 
poles of barns, on fences or trees, occasionally calling to one 
another, or moving from place to place. Cheerless as the 
season then is, they contrive to exist, though naturally insec- 
tivorous, until warmer weather causes an abundance of insects ; 
and they even mate during the cold weather, with which spring 
is inaugurated in this part of the world. In April, they gather 
various warm materials, and build their nests by placing them 
in a bird-box, or at the bottom of a hole in some tree; and in 
these nests their eggs are laid about the first of May, when but 
few other of our birds have begun incubation. The haunts of 
the Blue Birds are well-known, and few naturalists can pass 
through farms, orchards, gardens, or fields, or travel over roads 
through cultivated lands and villages, without associating with 
them these companions of every student of nature. The Blue 
Birds are not only pleasant friends, but are also useful laborers 
in behalf of agriculturists, as is proved by the nature of ‘their 
food, and the manner in which they obtain it. Though in the 
early spring, and more so in fall, various berries afford them 
nourishment, yet in May, and throughout the summer, they 
feed quite exclusively upon insects, chiefly upon beetles, many 
