161 
BLUE-BIRD. 
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, steer- 
ing 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 GOO miles from the nearest part of the continent. 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 jom*ney ; 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. 
