62 BLUE-BIRD. 



of winter, to enjoy the mildness of that climate as well as their 

 favorite food. 



As the Blue-bird is so regularly seen in winter, after the con- 

 tinuance of a few days of mild and open weather, it has given rise 

 to various conjectures as to the place of his retreat. Some sup- 

 posing it to be in close sheltered thickets, lying to the sun ; others 

 the neighbourhood of the sea, where the air is supposed to be more 

 temperate, and where the matters thrown up by the waves furnish 

 him with a constant and plentiful supply of food. Others trace 

 him to the dark recesses of hollow trees, and subterraneous ca- 

 verns, where they suppose he dozes away the winter, making, like 

 Robinson Crusoe, occasional reconnoitering excursions from his 

 castle, whenever the weather happens to be favorable. But amidst 

 the snows and severities of winter I have sought for him in vain in 

 the most favorable sheltered situations of the middle states ; and 

 not only in the neighbourhood of the sea, but on both sides of the 

 mountains.^ I have never, indeed, explored the depths of caverns 

 in search of him, because I would as soon expect to meet with tulips 

 and butterflies there, as Blue-birds , but among hundreds of wood- 

 men, who have cut down trees of all sorts, and at all seasons, I 

 have never heard one instance of these birds being found so im- 

 mured in winter ; while in the whole of the middle and eastern 

 states, the same general observation seems to prevail that the Blue- 

 bird always makes his appearance in winter after a few days of 

 mild and open weather. On the other hand, I have myself found 

 them numerous in the woods of North and South Carolina, in the 

 depth of winter, and I have also been assured by different gentle- 

 men of respectability, who have resided in the islands of Jamaica, 

 Cuba, and the Bahamas and Bermudas, that this very bird is com- 

 mon there in winter. We also find, from the works of Hernandes 

 Piso and others, that it is well known in Mexico, Guiana and Bra- 



* I speak of the species here generally. Solitary individuals are found, particularly among 

 our cedar trees, sometimes in the very depth of winter. 



