97 



( 



duller ; young spotted. L. 6^ ; W. 4 ; T. 3. It is useless to say anything of this well- 

 known bird. The children, even, can tell you all about it. 



His first note in early spring, as he goes "shifting his light load of song from 

 post to post along the cheerless fence," is as positive and welcome to the ear as the 

 first dandelion to the eye. Some stay all winter, if mild, in parties of five to ten. 

 They pair as early as February, and bring forth two or three broods during the 

 spring and summer — the male taking care of the first brood while the female is 

 busy with the second, Bluebirds nest, unlike the thrushes, in holes, and lay uni- 

 colored eggs ; they are readily semi-domesticated, like the swallows, house wren, 

 and house sparrow, living in boxes and gourds. A pair in my yard drove the 

 house sparrows from a box, and were themselves dispossessed by the purple martin. 

 Their melodious warbling song, sweet and charming, is inseparable from the spring- 

 time, " Like the sunshine of the days when the year is young, and Nature seems 

 to pause to gather strength for her intended triumphs, this melting music of the 

 bluebird is full of delicious languor and dremy voluptuousness, suggesting the pos- 

 sibilities of all things and expressing the realities of none. It is a promise and a 

 pledge of the future, like the unconscious yearning of a maiden for what she 

 knows not." ........... Dr. Coues. 



FAMILY III. SYLVIIDtE. 



(JTte Kinglets.) 



Primaries 10, the first short, scarcely spurious ; bill curved, notched, decurved 

 at tip. Rictal bristles evident ; nostrils oval, overhung. A large family of 600 

 species in the Old World, where they take the place of our warblers. The Euro- 

 pean nightingale belongs here. North America has three kinglets (genus Regulus), 

 known by the booted tarsus and wings longer than tail ; there are three gnat- 

 catchers (genus Polioptlla), known by the scutellate tarsus, and tail longer than 

 wings. 



REGULUS. Cuvier, Kinglets. 



11. R. SATRAPA. Licht. Golden-crowned Kinglet. Olivaceous; crown yel- 

 low, black-bordered, and with orange red in the center in male. Abundant, 

 migrant, going over Indiana all of April, and back again through October. 



12. R. CALENDULA. Licht. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. This species is much 

 like the other ; crown with a scarlet patch (a little lamp ; hence calendula) in both 

 sexes. A little scamp, everywhere in woods while migrating. It is several days 

 behind the golden-crown, and as many days in advance of it in the fall. Both 

 species are in length about 4 ; W 2^; T. i^. The golden-crown is a winter 

 resident in Southern Indiana. Both have a sweet little song, besides a constant 

 squeak when bug-hunting. Both are common little birds, but so small and so little 

 with us that few Indiana people have ever seen them. 



7 — HOET. Soc. 



