1869.] 
24.-9 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
the bltje-bird.—( Sicilia sialis.) 
The Blue-bird. —(Sialia sialis, Baird.) 
Among the insect-eating birds which it is 
easy to attract around our dwellings and to 
domicile in our orchards, none bus 
greater claim to uniform favor and kind 
treatment from man than the blue-bird. 
Its coming is often the very first indica¬ 
tion of the breaking up of winter, and 
it is always welcomed as a harbinger 
of returning spring. It seeks its old 
familiar haunts among the leafless 
boughs, and watches with jealous eye 
the least appearance of life among those 
depredators upon the foliage in the 
shade and shelter of which it anticipates 
so much enjoyment. We forget its note 
when summer comes, although it gives 
us so much pleasure in March, or we 
remember it only as we do those bland 
spring days when the sunshine is re¬ 
joiced in as thoroughly as we avoid it 
now. The male blue-bird is of a uni¬ 
form azure blue above, and reddish 
brown beneath, being white about the 
abdomen and beneath the tail. Its legs 
and bill are black. The female has 
similar but duller plumage, and the 
brown of the breast tinges more or less 
the feathers of the head and back. The 
length is about six and three quarter 
inches. Blue-birds build in hollows ol 
any sort, like a last year’s woodpecker’s 
hole, a hole in an apple tree where a 
limb was removed at a wrong season 
and decay has followed, a shelter under 
the eaves of a veranda, or a box ot 
almost any shape, six feet or more from 
the ground. They lay four to six eggs, 
which are of a faint blue color, with a 
shade of green, and are usually hatched 
late in May or early in June. Two 
broods are reared the same season, usu¬ 
ally in the same nest. The young arc 
peculiarly exposed to be eaten by cats, 
snakes, and other animals or birds of 
prey, as the nests are often v r ery poorly con¬ 
cealed. The food of this bird, when insects are 
abundant, is almost exclusively confined to 
them. It does but 
little damage to fruit, 
and consumes im¬ 
mense numbers of 
caterpillars and 
other worms, flies, 
and grasshoppers. 
Blue - bird boxes 
should be about six 
inches square, with 
inch - and-a - quarter 
holes, and they 
should be placed 
upon fruit or shade 
trees where cats can¬ 
not easily get at 
them. The posses¬ 
sion of these houses 
may be disputed 
with the bine birds, 
by the wrens, but 
these, too, are so use¬ 
ful and desirable 
that an easy solution 
of the difficulty must 
suggest itself to al¬ 
most every one. It 
is to provide bird-houses for all. Wrens seem 
to prefer unsheltered houses, while blue-birds 
always choose the seclusion of shade and foliage. 
The Pigeon Hawk. —(Falco Columbarius, Linn.) 
This beautiful little falcon inhabits the whole 
length and breadth of the United States, from 
Canada to Mexico, from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, and we presume it is no 
stranger in icy Alaska. Beautiful and 
graceful as it is, it merits onR slaughter 
from civilized man, for it is one of the 
most persevering v-nemies of all his 
feathered friends not large enough to 
avoid its keen sight, its swift flight, 
and its wolf-like rapacity. Doves and 
pigeons, robins and blue-birds, wild 
ducks and half-growm farm-yard poul¬ 
try, arc alike its victims. The Pigeon 
Hawks migrate with their prey to a 
notable extent, and are most abundant 
in the Northern United States, in spring 
and fall, though a few stay through the 
year in New Jersey and Southern New 
York, and other States on the same 
isothermal line, especially if the winters 
are mild. Our engraving shows the 
markings very well. This specimen was 
shot with a blue-bird in its talons, and 
was so stuffed. “The entire upper 
parts are b-lueish slate color, every 
feather with a black longitudinal line; 
forehead and throat white, other under 
parts pale yellowish, or reddish white, 
with longitudinal lines of brownish 
black in each feather. The tail feathers 
are black, tipped with ashy white, and 
there are spots of white upon each 
feather, forming cross-bands of white, 
or pale ferruginous color. The cere (or 
bare waxy skin between the bill and the 
feathers) is yellow, the bill blue, and the 
legs yellow. The bird flies with a suc¬ 
cession of rapid strokes of the wings, 
soaring hut little. It not only swoops 
down upon its prey from a command¬ 
ing position, but pursues and strikes 
almost everything upon the wing. No 
doubt if birds were scarce, it would take 
kindly to moles and mice, but we do not know 
of its doing so. It breeds at the North, doubt¬ 
less within the limits of the Union, but the 
habits of the birds 
when breeding seem 
to have been most 
accurately observed 
in Labrador. They 
make their nests in 
low fir trees, and lay 
three to five eggs, 
of a dull, yellowish 
brown color, with 
irregular dark red¬ 
dish brown blotches 
and specks. The 
total length of the 
female is 12 to 14 
inches; of the male, 
10 or 11. The young, 
when of nearly or 
quite full size, vary 
consideramy from 
the adult birds in 
markings, but are 
not difficult to rec¬ 
ognize. These lit¬ 
tle rascals are asso¬ 
ciated with two 
other species, as 
companions in guilt and merited retribution, 
having much the same character. These are 
the Sparrow Hawk and the Sharp-shin, the lat- 
is almost sure to return to look after the bird 
he killed or wounded, and will, if he tries to 
pick it up, be as surely caught by the leg. 
ter being by far the more common, at least in 
the Eastern States. Hawks may be easily 
snared if they are seen to strike, and can be 
made to drop their prey. Mr. Bell tells us he 
the pigeon hawk.— (Falco Columbarius , Linn.) 
is almost always successful when he sets a spring 
pole with a noose, laying the bird which the 
hawk dropped close under the trip. The hawk 
