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 Avell 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 



