BLUE BIRD. 
57 
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 beloved 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 extremities of his territory, and returns to warble 
out his transports of triumph beside his beloved mate. The 
preliminaries 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 preoccupied, shews 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 coleopterous kinds 
that lurk among old, dead, and decaying trees. Spiders are 
also a favourite repast with them. In the fall, they occasion- 
ally 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 
* Letter from Mr William Bartram to the author. 
