2 
The Bluebird 
their range every winter, those who do not being but a handful in com- 
parison. 
"What does this great downward journey of autumn mean?’’ you ask. 
What is the necessity for migration among a class of birds that are able to 
find food in fully half of their annual range? Why do birds seek extremes 
for nesting sites? This is a question about which the wise men have many 
theories, but they are still groping. One theory is that once the whole 
country had a more even climate and that many species of birds lived all the 
year in places that are now unsuitable for a permanent residence. There- 
fore, the home instinct being so strong, though they were driven from their 
nesting sites by scarcity of food and stress of weather, their instinct led them 
back as soon as the return of spring made it possible. 
Thus the hereditary love of the place where they were given life may 
underlie the great subject of migration in general and that of the Bluebird’s 
home in particular. 
, Before more than the first notes of the spring song have 
The Bluebird jj-uj- oil-j u u j 
at Home sounded in the distance. Bluebirds are to be seen by twos and 
threes about the edge of old orchards along open roads, where 
the skirting trees have crumbled or decaying knot-holes have left tempting 
nooks for the tree-trunk birds, with whom the Bluebird may be classed. 
For, though he takes kindly to a bird -box, or a convenient hole in fence- 
post, telegraph pole or outbuilding, a tree hole must have been his first home 
and consequently he has a strong feeling in its favor. 
As with many other species of migrant birds, the male is the first to 
arrive; and he does not seem to be particularly interested in house-hunting 
until the arrival of the female, when the courtship begins without delay, 
and the delicate purling song with the refrain, "Dear, dear, think of it, 
think of it,” and the low, two-syllabled answer of the female is heard in 
every orchard. The building of the nest is not an important function, — 
merely the gathering of a few wisps and straws, with some chance feathers 
for lining. It seems to be shared by both parents, as are the duties of hatch- 
ing and feeding the young. The eggs vary in number, six being the maxi- 
mum, and they are not especially attractive, being of so pale a blue that it is 
better to call them bluish white. Two broods are usually raised each year, 
though three are said to be not uncommon ; for Bluebirds are active during 
a long season, and, while the first nest is made before the middle of April, 
last year a brood left the box over my rose arbor September I2, though I do 
not know whether this was a belated or a prolonged family arrangement. 
As parents the Bluebirds are tireless, both in supplying the nest with in- 
sect food and attending to its sanitation; the wastage being taken away and 
dropped at a distance from the nest at almost unbelievably short intervals, 
proving the wonderful rapidity of digestion and the immense amount of 
labor required to supply the mill inside the little speckled throats with grist. 
