BLUE-BIRD 



63 



zil ; and if so, the place of its winter retreat is easily ascertained, 

 without having recourse to all the trumpery of holes and caverns, 

 torpidity, hybernation, and such ridiculous improbabilities. 



Nothing is more common in Pennsylvania than to see large 

 flocks of these birds in Spring and Fall, passing, at considerable 

 heights in the air; from the south in the former, and from the north 

 in the latter season. I have seen, in the month of October, about 

 an hour after sun-rise, ten or fifteen of them descend from a great 

 height and settle on the top of a tall detached tree, appearing, from 

 their silence and sedateness to be strangers, and fatigued. After 

 a pause of a few minutes they began to dress and arrange their 

 plumage, and continued so employed for ten or fifteen minutes 

 more ; then, on a few warning notes being given, perhaps by the 

 leader of the party, the whole remounted to a vast height, steering 

 in a direct line for the south-west. In passing along the chain of 

 the Bahamas towards the West Indies, no great difficulty can occur 

 from the frequency of these islands ; nor even to the Bermudas, 

 which are said to be 600 miles from the nearest part of the conti- 

 nent. This may seem an extraordinary flight for so small a bird ; 

 but it is nevertheless a fact that it is performed. If we suppose the 

 Blue-bird in this case to fly only at the rate of a mile per minute, 

 which is less than I have actually ascertained him to do over land, 

 ten or eleven hours would be sufficient to accomplish the journey; 

 besides the chances he would have of resting places by the way, 

 from the number of vessels that generally navigate those seas. In 

 like manner two days at most, allowing for numerous stages for 

 rest, would conduct him from the remotest regions of Mexico to 

 any part of the Atlantic states. When the natural history of that 

 part of the continent and its adjacent isles, are better known, and 

 the periods at which its birds of passage arrive and depart, are 

 truly ascertained, I have no doubt but these suppositions will be 

 fully corroborated. 



