62 
BLUE BIRD. 
these islands abound with the cedar, it is highly probable that 
many of those birds pass from our continent thence, at the 
commencement of winter, to enjoy the mildness of that climate 
as well as their favourite food. 
As the Blue Bird is so regularly seen in winter, after the 
continuance of a few days of mild and open weather, it has 
given rise to various conjectures as to the place of his retreat. 
Some supposing it to be in close, sheltered thickets, lying to 
the sun ; others the neighbourhood of the sea, where the air 
is supposed to be more temperate, and where the matters 
thrown up by the waves furnish him with a constant and 
plentiful supply of food. Others trace him to the dark recesses 
of hollow trees, and subterraneous caverns, where they suppose 
he dozes away the winter, making, like Robinson Crusoe, 
occasional reconnoitring excursions from his castle, whenever 
the weather happens to be favourable. But amidst the snows 
and severities of winter, I have sought for him in vain in the 
most favourable sheltered situations of the middle states ; and 
not only in the neighbourhood of the sea, but on both sides of 
the mountains.* I have never, indeed, explored the depths 
of caverns in search of him, because I would as soon expect to 
meet with tulips and butterflies there, as Blue Birds ; but, 
among hundreds of woodmen, who have cut down trees of all 
sorts, and at all seasons, I have never heard one instance of 
these birds being found so immured in winter ; while, in the 
whole of the middle and eastern states, the same general 
observation seems to prevail, that the Blue Bird always makes 
his appearance in winter after a few days of mild and open 
weather. On the other hand, I have myself found them 
numerous in the woods of North and South Carolina, in the 1 
depth of winter ; and I have also been assured by different 
gentlemen of respectability, who have resided in the islands 
of Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas and Bermudas, that this j 
very bird is common there in winter. We also find, from the 
* I speak of the species here generally. Solitary individuals are found, 
particularly among our cedar trees, sometimes in the very depth of winter. 
