LAND-BITtDS. 
48 
c. The familiar Bluebirds are the first birds to come from 
their winter homes to the Eastern States ; for they reach the 
neighborhood of Boston, invariably no later than March, and 
sometimes in February. They have once reached it, accord¬ 
ing to Dr. Brewer, on the twenty-eighth day of January, though 
never known to pass the winter here. In summer they are 
very common and generally well known throughout southern 
New England, though comparatively rare to the northward, 
as in the case with many other of our common birds. Whilst 
migrating, they usually fly very high, and one may often be 
apprised of their coming, before seeing them, by hearing their 
warbled note, which they frequently utter when on the wing. 
By the middle of March they become quite common, and may 
be seen in small companies, perched on telegraph-wires or 
ridge-poles of barns, on fences or trees, occasionally calling to 
one another, or moving from place to place. Cheerless as the 
. season then is, they contrive to exist, though naturally insec¬ 
tivorous, until warmer weather causes an abundance of in¬ 
sects ; and they even mate during the cold weather with which 
spring is inaugurated in this part of the world. In April, 
they gather various warm materials, and build their nests by 
placing them in a bird-box, or at the bottom of a hole in some 
tree; and in these nests their eggs are laid about the first of 
May, when but few other of our birds have begun incubation. 
The haunts of the Bluebirds are well known, and few natu¬ 
ralists can pass through farms, orchards, gardens, or fields, or 
travel over roads through cultivated lands and villages, with¬ 
out associating with them these companions of every student 
of nature. The Bluebirds are not only pleasant friends, but 
are also useful laborers in behalf of agriculturists, as is proved 
by the nature of their food, and the manner in which they 
obtain it. Though in the early spring, and more so in fall, 
various berries afford them nourishment, yet in May, and 
throughout the summer, they feed quite exclusively upon in¬ 
sects, chiefly upon beetles, many of which are injurious. As 
they often rear two or even three broods of young during their 
annual stay in Massachusetts, they necessarily destroy an in¬ 
calculable number of pests (at the rate of between fifty and a 
