332 FOREIGN BIRDS. 



Not in woodlands apart from the rest of the crowd, 

 Where the dark vested trees many warblers oft shroud; 

 Not unheard and unseen, far from dwellings of men, 

 Pour'd the Blue-Bird ( i5 ) his notes in the wild forest 



glen ; 

 But, the dear mellow harmonist seem'd to delight 

 In all that was social, and chearful, and bright : 

 Artless chorister ! he, in his elegant suit, 

 Thus tastefully touch'd the sweet strings of his lute. 



( I5 ) Order, PAssEREs,(La^.)BLUE-BiRD,or Blue-Warbler. 



The Sylvia sialis, Blue-Bird, or Blue-Warbler, is six 

 inches and three quarters long ; above a rich sky-blue, with 

 purple reflections; throat, neck, breast, and sides partially 

 under the wiDgs, chesnut ; beneath white ; inhabits the United 

 States, Mexico, Brazil, and Guiana; eggs five or six, pale blue ; 

 feeds on insects and berries. It is much troubled with a species 

 of tapeworm j most other birds, it is said, are also pestered 

 with these animals. The spring and summer song of this bird is 

 a soft, agreeable, and oft repeated, warble. In its motions and 

 general character has a great resemblance to the redbreast ; 

 like him in this country, the blue-bird is known to almost every 

 child in the United States. The cowpen lays its egg sometimes 

 in the nest of this bird. See the Note on the Cowpen, for- 

 ward ; and also the Address to the Blue-Bird. 



" When winter's cold tempests and snows are no more, 



Green meadows and brown furrow'd fields re-appearing ; 

 The fishermen hauling their shad to the shore, 



And cloud-cleaving geese to the lakes are a-steering; 

 When first the lone butterfly flits on the vu'ug; 



When red glow the maples so fresh and so pleasing, 

 O then comes the Blue-Bird, the Herald of Spring! 

 And bails with his warbling the charms of the season." 

 Wilson's American Ornithology* 



