58 BLUE BIRD. 



their favourite dishes, and many other fruits and seeds which 

 I have found in their stomachs at that season, which, being 

 no botanist, I am unable to particularise. They are frequently 

 pestered with a species of tape-worm, some of which I have 

 taken from their intestines of an extraordinary size, and, in 

 some cases, in great numbers. Most other birds are also 

 plagued with these vermin, but the blue bird seems more 

 subject to them than any I know, except the woodcock. An 

 account of the different species of vermin, many of which, I 

 doubt not, are nondescripts, that infest the plumage and intes- 

 tines of our birds, would of itself form an interesting publica- 

 tion ; but, as this belongs more properly to the entomologist, 

 I shall only, in the course of this work, take notice of some of 

 the most remarkable ; and occasionally represent them on the 

 same plate with those birds upon which they are usually 

 found. 



The usual spring and summer song of the blue bird is a 

 soft, agreeable, and oft-repeated warble, uttered with open 

 quivering wings, and is extremely pleasing. In his motions 

 and general character, he has great resemblance to the robin 

 redbreast of Britain ; and, had he the brown olive of that bird, 

 instead of his own blue, could scarcely be distinguished from 

 hiin. Like him, he is known to almost every child ; and 

 shows as much confidence in man by associating with him in 

 summer, as the other by his familiarity in winter. He is also 

 of a mild and peaceful disposition, seldom fighting or quarrel- 

 ling with other birds. His society is courted by the inhabi- 

 tants of the country, and few farmers neglect to provide for 

 hiin, in some suitable place, a snug little summer-house, ready 

 fitted and rent free. For this he more than sufficiently repays 

 them by the cheerfulness of his song, and the multitude of 

 injurious insects which he daily destroys. Towards fall, that 

 is, in the month of October, his song changes to a single plain- 

 tive note, as he passes over the yellow many-coloured woods ; 

 and its melancholy air recalls to our minds the approaching 

 decay of the face of nature. Even after the trees are stript of 



