172 
COMMON BLUE-BIRD. 
for it, as it sits on the roof of the house, the barn, or the fence-stake, 
it returns to it even during the winter, and its visits are always welcomed 
by those who know it best. 
When March returns, the male commences his courtship, manifesting 
as much tenderness and affection towards his chosen one, as the dove itself. 
Martins and House Wrens! be prepared to encounter his anger, or keep 
at a respectful distance. Even the wily cat he will torment with queru- 
lous chirpings, whenever he sees her in the path from which he wishes to 
pick up an insect for his mate. 
The Blue-bird breeds in the Floridas as early as January, and pairs at 
Charleston in that month, in Pennsylvania about the middle of April, and 
in the State of Maine in June. It forms its nest in the box made ex- 
pressly for the purpose, or in any convenient hole or cavity it can find, 
often taking possession of thoso abandoned by the Woodpecker. The eggs 
are from four to six, of a pale blue colour. Two and often three broods 
are raised in the year. While the female sits on the second set of eggs, 
the male takes charge of the first brood, and so on to the end. 
The food of this species consists of coleoptera, caterpillars, spiders, and 
insects of various kinds, in procuring which it frequently alights against 
the bark of trees. They are also fond of ripe fruits, such as figs, per- 
simons, and grapes, and during the autumnal months they pounce on 
grasshoppers from the tops of the great mullein, so frequent in the old 
fields. They are extremely, fond of newly ploughed land, on which, espe- 
cially during winter and early spring, they are often seen in search of the 
insects turned out of their burrows by the plough. 
The song of the Blue-bird is a soft agreeable warble, often repeated during 
the love-season, when it seldom sings without a gentle quivering of the 
wings.* When the period of migration arrives, its voice consists merely 
of a tender and plaintive note, perhaps denoting the reluctance with which 
it contemplates the approach of winter. In November most of the indivi- 
duals that have resided during the summer in the Northern and Middle 
Districts, are seen high in the air moving southward along with their 
families, or alighting to seek for food and enjoy repose. But many are 
seen in winter, whenever a few days of fine weather occur, so fond are they 
of their old haunts, and so easily can birds possessing powers of flight like 
theirs, move from one place to another. Their return takes place early in 
February, or March, when they appear in parties of eight or ten of both 
sexes. When they alight at this season, the joyous carols of the males are 
heard from the tops of the early-blooming sassafras and maple. 
During winter, they are extremely abundant in all the Southern States, 
and more especially in the Floridas, where I found hundreds of them on all 
