56 BLUE BIRD. 



messengers of spring, bringing the charming tidings to our 

 very doors, he bears his own recommendation always along 

 with him, and meets with a hearty welcome from everybody. 



Though generally accounted a bird of pass;ige, yet, so early 

 as the middle of February, if the weather be open, he usually 

 makes his appearance about his old haunts, the barn, orchard, 

 and fence posts. Storms and deep snows sometimes succeed- 

 ing, he disappears for a time ; but about the middle of March 

 is again seen, accompanied by his mate, visiting the box in the 



been dedicated, by Mr Swainson, to our author. It remained a solitary- 

 individual, until the discovery of a Mexican species by that gentleman, 

 described under the title of S. Mexicana ; and the return of the last 

 overland Arctic expedition brought forward a third, confirming the views 

 that were before held regarding it. According to these, it will range 

 among the Saxicolince, whence it had been previously removed from 

 Sylvia by Vieillot and Bonaparte, and it will hold the place, in North 

 and South America, of the robin of Europe, and the stonechats of that 

 country and Africa ; while, in New Holland, the Muscicapa multicolor, 

 now bearing the generic title of Petroica, with some allied species, will 

 represent it. The old species ranges extensively over North America, 

 and the northern parts of the south continent, extending also to some of 

 the islands : tiie newly-discovered one appears confined to a more nor- 

 thern latitude. It has been described in the second volume of the " Nor- 

 thern Zoology," under the name of S. Arctica, and I now add the infor- 

 mation contained in that valuable work : — 



" Colour of the dorsal aspect, ultramarine blue ; the webs of the ter- 

 tiaries, and the tips of the inner margins of the quill and tail-feathers, 

 dull umber brown ; the base of the plumage, blackish gray. Under 

 surface — the cheeks, throat, breast, and insides of the wings, greenish 

 blue, bordering on the abdomen to grayish blue ; vent-feathers, and 

 under tail-coverts, white ; tail beneath, and inside of the quill-feathers, 

 olive brown, with a strong tinge of blue ; bill and feet, pitch black ; 

 form, in general, that of S. JFilsonii, but the bill is considerably narrower 

 at the base, and proportionably larger, straighter, and less notched, and 

 bent at the tip of the upper mandible ; its breadth is equal to its depth ; 

 wings, three quarters of an inch shorter than the tail ; the second quill- 

 feather is the longest ; the first and third are equal, and about a line shorter ; 

 the tenth is an inch and a half shorter than the second ; tail, forked, or 

 deeply emarginated, the central feathers being more than half an inch 

 shorter than the exterior ones ; legs and feet, similarly formed with those 

 of S. Wilsonii ; length, seven inches nine lines." — Ed. 



