Plate XII. 
SIAUA SIALIS— Eastern Bluebird. 
Bluebirds remain in the state in small numbers throughout the winter, and whenever a bright day 
occurs they warble their plaintive call-notes, so suggestive of “sunshine and pleasure.” Even those that 
seek winter-residences in a milder climate, seemingly ever-mindful of the golden days of their native 
country, often return prematurely to their former homes, and as early as January or February, while 
nature is yet ice-bound and cheerless, these hardy little migrants may be seen patiently awaiting the 
coming spring. 
Although they may pair in February or March, and even choose the locality for the nest, oviposi- 
tion does not generally take place before the last of April or the first of May. Two broods, and some- 
times three, are raised in one summer. 
LOCALITY: 
The nest is universally placed in a cavity ; usually in a tree or stump standing alone in a meadow 
or cultivated field, in a detached clump, or in a piece of sparsedly timbered land. Trees in the interior 
of thick woods are seldom selected. Old orchard-trees, on account of their numerous decayed trunks 
and limbs; deserted Woodpecker-lioles, wherever they may be; bird-boxes, when suitably situated; and 
the various crevices about city and country dwellings, are favorite sites for building. 
POSITION : 
The nest, which sometimes is hardly worthy of the name, is ordinarily supported by the floor, and 
shaped at the sides by the walls of the cavity;' but when the excavation is large, like the interior of 
a stump, with only a small entrance, it may rest simply in a slight hollow wallowed-out by the bird in 
the soft debris of decayed wood. Its distance from the ground is usually between five and ten feet. 
I have, however, known it to be a few inches below the surface, in a small stump ; and again, in an 
unoccupied Flicker’s nest, near the top of a large sycamore. 
MATERIALS : 
The materials in all the nests which I have examined were blades of grass, timothy-stalks, short 
pieces of stubble, and fine weed-stems combined in various proportions, the grasses generally forming the 
bulk of the structures. Sometimes feathers from the poultry-yard, wool, pieces of string, and like 
substances are used as a lining. The quantity of material is not great — just enough is employed to 
make a soft and slightly concave resting-place for the eggs. When the same cavity is occupied for a 
number of years, as is frequently the case, the nests may accumulate to the depth of six or eight inches ; 
and, as the addition of each year is lighter in shade than that of the previous one, the number of sep- 
arate structures may be easily counted. The old nest, however, is, as a rule, torn to pieces and car- 
ried away. 
