Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0085/00851.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 12KB | 199 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00851}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Common Blue-Bird}
$Subject{Sylvianae; Sialia; Wilsonii; sialis; Common Blue-Bird; Eastern
Bluebird}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume II}
$Volume{Vol. 2:171-175}
$Family{Sylvianae}
$Genus{Sialia}
$Species{Wilsonii; sialis}
$Common_Name{Common Blue-Bird; Eastern Bluebird}
$Log{
Plate CXXXIV*00227p1.scf,51110020.aud
Bird Call*51110020.aud
Family*00221.TXT
Genus*00226.TXT
Figure *0022701.scf
}

            (C) (P) Library of Natural Sounds; Cornell Laboratory
       of Ornithology 1990-91, 1992; Ithaca, N.Y., All rights reserved.
       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  II.
                        --------------------------------


                               COMMON BLUE-BIRD.
           [Eastern Bluebird.  State Bird of Missouri and New York.]


                            SIALIA WILSONII, Swains.
                                [Sialia sialis.]


                    PLATE CXXXIV.--MALE, FEMALE, AND YOUNG.


     This lovely bird is found in all parts of our country, and is generally a
permanent resident of the Southern States.  It adds to the delight imparted by
spring, and enlivens the dull days of winter.  Full of innocent vivacity,
warbling its ever pleasing notes, and familiar as any bird can be in its natural
freedom, it is one of the most agreeable of our feathered favourites.  The pure
azure of its mantle, and the beautiful glow of its breast, render it
conspicuous, as it flits through the orchards and gardens, crosses the fields or
meadows, or hops along by the road-side.  Recollecting the little box made for
it, as it sits on the roof of the house, the barn, or the fence-stake, it
returns to it even during the winter, and its visits are always welcomed by
those who know it best.
     When March returns, the male commences his courtship, manifesting as much
tenderness and affection towards his chosen one, as the dove itself.  Martins
and House Wrens!  be prepared to encounter his anger, or keep at a respectful
distance.  Even the wily cat he will torment with querulous chirpings, whenever
he sees her in the path from which he wishes to pick up an insect for his mate.
     The Blue-bird breeds in the Floridas as early as January, and pairs at
Charleston in that month, in Pennsylvania about the middle of April, and in the
State of Maine in June.  It forms its nest in the box made expressly for the
purpose, or in any convenient hole or cavity it can find, often taking
possession of those abandoned by the Woodpecker.  The eggs are from four to six,
of a pale blue colour.  Two and often three broods are raised in the year.
While the female sits on the second set of eggs, the male takes charge of the
first brood, and so on to the end.
     The food of this species consists of coleoptera, caterpillars, spiders, and
insects of various kinds, in procuring which it frequently alights against the
bark of trees.  They are also fond of ripe fruits, such as figs, persimons, and
grapes, and during the autumnal months they pounce on grasshoppers from the tops
of the great mullein, so frequent in the old fields.  They are extremely fond of
newly ploughed land, on which, especially during winter and early spring, they
are often seen in search of the insects turned out of their burrows by the
plough.
     The song of the Blue-bird is a soft agreeable warble, often repeated during
the love-season, when it seldom sings without a gentle quivering of the wings.
When the period of migration arrives, its voice consists merely of a tender and
plaintive note, perhaps denoting the reluctance with which it contemplates the
approach of winter.  In November most of the individuals that have resided
during the summer in the Northern and Middle Districts, are seen high in the air
moving southward along with their families, or alighting to seek for food and
enjoy repose.  But many are seen in winter, whenever a few days of fine weather
occur, so fond are they of their old haunts, and so easily can birds possessing
powers of flight like theirs, move from one place to another.  Their return
takes place early in February or March, when they appear in parties of eight or
ten of both sexes.  When they alight at this season, the joyous carols of the
males are heard from the tops of the early-blooming sassafras and maple.
     During winter, they are extremely abundant in all the Southern States, and
more especially in the Floridas, where I found hundreds of them on all the
plantations that I visited.  The species becomes rare in Maine, still more so in
Nova Scotia, and in Newfoundland and Labrador none were seen by our exploring
party.
     My excellent and learned friend Dr. RICHARD HARLAN of Philadelphia, told me
that one day, while in the neighbourhood of that city, sitting in the piazza of
a friend's house, he observed that a pair of Blue-birds had taken possession of
a hole cut out expressly for them in the end of the cornice above him.  They had
young, and were very solicitous for their safety, insomuch that it was no
uncommon thing to see the male especially, fly at a person who happened to pass
by.  A hen with her brood in the yard came within a few yards of the piazza.
The wrath of the Blue-bird rose to such a pitch that, notwithstanding its great
disparity of strength, it flew at the hen with violence, and continued to assail
her, until she was at length actually forced to retreat and seek refuge under a
distant shrub, when the little fellow returned exultingly to his nest, and there
carolled his victory with great animation.
     This species has often reminded me of the Robin Redbreast of Europe, to
which it bears a considerable resemblance in form and habits.  Like the
Blue-bird the Redbreast has large eyes, in which the power of its passions are
at times seen to be expressed.  Like it also, he alights on the lower branches
of a tree, where, standing in the same position, he peeps sidewise at the
objects beneath and around, until spying a grub or an insect, he launches
lightly towards it, picks it up, and gazes around intent on discovering more,
then takes a few hops with a downward inclination of the body, stops, erects
himself, and should not another insect be near, returns to the branch, and tunes
his throat anew.  Perhaps it may have been on account of having observed
something of this similarity of habits, that the first settlers in Massachusetts
named our bird the Blue Robin, a name which it still retains in that state.
     I have not received any intimation of the occurrence of this interesting
bird to the west of the Rocky Mountains, although it was observed by Mr.
TOWNSEND on the head waters of the Missouri.  Dr. RICHARDSON mentions it as
being found in summer to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, up to the 48th
parallel of latitude, beyond which none were seen by the members of the
expedition.  I found it abundant and breeding in the Texas.  The eggs measure
seven and a half eighths of an inch in length, five-eighths and three-fourths in
breadth, and are rather more bulky than is usual in birds of this family.  In
the United States, when in an uncultivated district, it forms its nest in the
hollow or hole of a tree.


     BLUE-BIRD, Sylvia Sialis, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 56.
     SAXICOLA SIALIS, Bonap. Syn., p. 39.
     ERYTHACA (SIALIA) WILSONII, Swains. and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii.
       p. 210.
     BLUE-BIRD, Ampelis Sialis, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 444.
     BLUE-BIRD, Sylvia Sialis, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 84; vol. v. p. 452.


     Adult Male.
     Bill of ordinary length, nearly straight, broader than deep at the base,
compressed towards the end; upper mandible with the dorsal line convex, the tip
declinate, the edges sharp.  Nostrils basal, oval.  Head rather large, neck
short, body rath