AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
135 
is so frequently domesticated, agrees better with confine- 
ment, or sings in that state more agreeably than the Robin. 
They generally suffer severely in moulting time, yet often 
live to a considerable age. A lady who resides near Tarry- 
town, on the banks of the Hudson, informed me, that she 
raised, and kept one of these birds for seventeen years; 
which sung as well, and looked as sprightly, at that age as 
ever; but was at last unfortunately destroyed by a cat. 
The morning is their favourite time for song. In passing 
through the streets of our large cities, on Sunday, in the 
months of April and May, a little after day-break, the 
general silence which usually prevails without at that hour, 
will enable you to distinguish every house where one of 
these songsters resides, as he makes it then ring with his 
music. 
Not only the plumage of the Robin, as of many other 
birds, is subject to slight periodical changes of colour, but 
even the legs, feet, and bill; the latter, in the male, being 
frequently found tipt and ridged for half its length with 
black. In the depth of winter their plumage is generally 
best; at which time the full-grown bird, in his most perfect 
dress, appears as exhibited in the plate. 
BLUE BIRD. 
S. SIALIS. 
[Plate XII.] 
Le Rouge gorge bleu, Buffon, v. 212 , PL Enl. 390 . — 
Blue. Warbler, Lath, ii, 446 . — Catesb. i, 47 . — Mota- 
cilla sialis, Linn. Syst. 336 . — Bartram, p. 291 .— 
Motacilla sialis, Linn. Syst. i ,p. 187 , Ed. 10 . — Gmel. 
Syst. i, p. 989 . — Sylvia sialis, Lath. Ind. Orn. n, 
522 . — Vieillot, Otis, de PAm. Sept. pi. 101 , male; 
102 , female; 103 , young. — La Gorge rouge de la Ca- 
roline, Buff. PL Enl. 396 , Jig. 1, male; Jig. 2 , fe- 
male. — J. Doughty’s collection. 
The pleasing manners and sociable disposition of this 
little bird entitle him to. particular notice. As one of the 
first 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 
every body. 
Though generally accounted a bird of passage, 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 some- 
times succeeding, he disappears for a time; but about the 
middle of March is again seen, accompanied by his mate, 
visiting the box in the garden, or the hole in the old apple- 
tree, the cradle of some generations of his ancestors. 
“When he first begins his amours,” says a curious and 
correct observer, “it is pleasing to behold his courtship, his 
solicitude to please and to secure the favour of his bMoved 
female. He uses the tenderest expressions, sits close by 
her, caresses and sings to her his most endearing warblings. 
When seated together, if he espies an insect delicious to her 
taste, he takes it up, flies with it to her, spreads his wing 
over her and puts it in her mouth.”* If a rival makes his 
appearance, (for they are ardent in their loves), he quits her 
in a moment, attacks and pursues the intruder, as he shifts 
from place to place, in tones that bespeak the jealousy of his 
affection, conducts him with many reproofs beyond the ex- 
tremities of his territory, and returns to warble out his 
transports of triumph beside his beloved mate. The preli- 
minaries being thus settled, and the spot fixed on, they begin 
to clean out the old nest, and the rubbish of the former year, 
and to prepare for the reception of their future offspring. 
Soon after this another sociable little pilgrim ( Motacilla 
domestica, House Wren), also arrives from the south, and 
finding such a snug birth pre-occupied, shows his spite, by 
watching a convenient opportunity, and in the absence of 
the owner popping in and pulling out sticks; but takes 
special care to make off as fast as possible. 
The female lays five, and sometimes six eggs, of a pale 
blue colour; and raises two, and sometimes three broods in 
a season; the male taking the youngest under his particular 
care while the female is again sitting. Their principal food 
are insects, particularly large beetles, and others of the co- 
leopterous kinds that lurk among old dead and decaying 
trees. Spiders are also a favourite repast with them. In 
fall they occasionally regale themselves on the berries of the 
sour gum; and as winter approaches, on those of the red 
cedar, and on the fruit of a rough hairy vine that runs up 
and cleaves fast to the trunks of trees. Ripe persimmons 
is another of their favourite dishes; and many other fruits 
and seeds which I have found in their stomachs at that sea- 
son, which, being no botanist, I am unable to particularize. 
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 non-descripts, 
that infest the plumage and intestines of our birds, would of 
itself form an interesting publication; but as this belongs 
* Letter from Mr. William Bartram to the author. 
