The Western Bluebird 
trees or lodged at considerable intervals along the intersecting fences. 
The experimenter finds that more than half of the boxes are occupied 
each season, and he counts the birds of inestimable value in helping to 
save the grapes and apples from the ravages of worms. 
In providing for Bluebird’s comfort, care must be taken to expel cats 
from the premises; or at least to place the box in an inaccessible position. 
English Sparrows, also, must be shot at sight, for the Bluebird, however 
valorous, is no match for a mob. Tree Swallows or Violet-greens may 
covet the nesting-box—your affections are sure to be divided when these 
last appear upon the scene—but the Bluebirds can take care of them¬ 
selves here. For the rest, do not make the box too nice; and above all 
do not make it of new lumber. Nesting birds do not care to be the 
observed of all observers, and the more natural their surroundings, the 
more at ease your tenants will be. An occasional inspection will not be 
resented, if the Bluebirds know their landlord well. There may be some 
untoward condition to correct,—an overcrowded nestling, or the like. At 
the end of the season the box should be emptied, cleaned, and if possible 
sterilized. 
While the Western Bluebird raises, or attempts to raise, two broods 
in a season, the stock is not a very vigorous one, at least in the South. 
Possibly those birds which do nest in a desultory fashion at the lower 
levels, even as far south as San Diego, are of a residual, unprogressive 
stock, destined in time to perish. Be that as it may, quite a different 
account comes down to us of the bird’s status and behavior further 
north. On Puget Sound, for example, the Western Bluebird is distinctly 
on the increase. An observer in Seattle unintentionally brought to light 
the exceptional vigor of the northern stock, when he tried to prevent a 
pair of Western Bluebirds from nesting in a bird-box which he had 
prepared for the Violet-green Swallows. Being a thrifty oologist, the 
observer did not intervene until the Bluebirds had completed a nest 
and filled it with six eggs. This the gentleman removed entire, and con¬ 
sidered the incident closed. But the Bluebirds thought otherwise, and 
two weeks later presented the egg-man with another set of six, which 
he accepted—with nest. Nothing daunted, the Bluebirds fought off 
the insistent Swallows and tried again. Result, six eggs and another 
rebuke. In this fashion the indomitable birds provided six nests of six 
eggs each in the same box in one season. 
780 
