uebird's food "consists of
insects and their allies, while the other 24 per cent. is made up of
various vegetable substances, found mostly in stomachs taken in winter.
Beetles constitute 28 per cent. of the whole food, grasshoppers 22,
caterpillars 11, and various insects, including quite a number of
spiders, comprise the remainder of the insect diet. All these are more
or less harmful, except a few predaceous beetles, which amount to 8 per
cent., but in view of the large consumption of grasshoppers and
caterpillars, we can at least condone this offense, if such it may be
called. The destruction of grasshoppers is very noticeable in the
months of August and September, when these insects form more than 60
per cent. of the diet."

It is not easy to tempt Bluebirds to an artificial feeding-place, such
as I keep supplied with food for Juncos, Chickadees, Woodpeckers,
Nuthatches, Jays, etc.; though in winter they will eat dried currants
and make their own selection from mill sweepings if scattered about the
trees of their haunts. For, above all things, the Bluebird, though
friendly and seeking the borderland between the wild and the tame,
never becomes familiar, and never does he lose the half-remote
individuality that is one of his great charms. Though he lives with us
and gives no sign of pride of birth or race, he is not of us, as the
Song Sparrow, Chippy or even the easily alarmed Robin. The poet's
mantle envelopes him even as the apple blossoms throw a rosy mist about
his doorway, and it is best so.

THE BLUEBIRDS.

1. EASTERN BLUEBIRD (SIALIA SIALIS).

_Adult male._--Length 7 inches. Upper parts, wings and tail bright
blue; breast and sides rusty, reddish brown, belly white. Adult
female.--Similar to the male, but upper parts except the upper tail
coverts, duller, gray or brownish blue, the breast and sides paler.
Nestling.--Wings and tail essentially like those of adult, upper parts
dark sooty brown, the back spotted with whitish; below, whitish, but
the feathers of the breast and sides widely margined with brown,
producing a spotted appearance. This plumage is soon followed by the
fall or winter plumage, in which the blue feathers of the back are
fringed with rusty, and young and old birds are then alike in color.

_Range._--Eastern United States west to the Rocky Mountains; nests from
the Gulf States to Manitoba and Nova Scotia; winters from southern New
England southward.

1a. AZURE BLUEBIRD (SIAL