. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. 6o Handbook of Nature-Study THE BLUEBIRD Teacher's Story TERN as were our Pilgrim Fathers, they could not fail to welcome certain birds with plumage the color of June skies, whose sweet voices brought hope and cheer to their homesick hearts at the close of that first, long, hard winter of 1621. The red breasts of these birds brought to memory the robins of old England and so they were called "Blue robins"; and this name ex- presses well the relationship implied, because the
. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. 6o Handbook of Nature-Study THE BLUEBIRD Teacher's Story TERN as were our Pilgrim Fathers, they could not fail to welcome certain birds with plumage the color of June skies, whose sweet voices brought hope and cheer to their homesick hearts at the close of that first, long, hard winter of 1621. The red breasts of these birds brought to memory the robins of old England and so they were called "Blue robins"; and this name ex- presses well the relationship implied, because the blue- birds and robins of America are both members of the thrush family, a family noted for exquisite song. The bluebirds are usually ahead of the robins in the northward journey and arrive in New York often amid the blizzards of early March, their soft, rich "curly" notes bringing, even to the doubting mind, glad con- victions of coming spring. There is a family resemblance between voices of bluebird and robin, a certain rich quality of tone, but the robin's song is far more assertive and complex than is the soft, "purling" song of the bluebird, which has been vocalized as "tru-al-ly, ; These love songs cease with the hard work of feeding the nestlings in April, but may be heard again as a prelude to the second brood in June. The red breast of the bluebird is its only color resemblance to the robin, although the young bluebirds and robins are both spotted, showing the thrush colors. The robin is so much larger than the bluebird that commonly the relation- ship is not noticed. This is easily explained because there is nothing to suggest a robin in the exquisite cerulean blue of the bluebird's head, back, tail and wings. This color is most brilliant when the bird is on the wing, in the sunshine. However, there is a certain mirror-like quality in these blue feathers; and among leaf shadows or even among bare branches they in a measure, refl
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