WREN AND WAGTAILS.

tion in 1820, and only four years later DeWitt Clinton described it as an original discovery to the New York Lyceum. In 1841 it appeared in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and now it wheels through

least numerous of the swallow family with us, has a strong sense of locality, and reappears in its favorite haunts for successive years, living in communes, as is the wont of all swallows. Beginning to nest in Eastern Pennsylvania in May, it hatches four or five eggs within a fortnight, and after a second brood has followed, all leave by the middle of September. Few of our feathered visitors destroy more injurious insects, are less injurious, or equally constant and confiding. They rear three broods annually at the South, and one near Great Bear Lake; and their courage is attested by their vigorous combats with bluebirds, crows, doves, hawks, and even with the warrior king-bird. Its flight is singularly graceful as well as rapid; but myriads. are killed by the cold during its migrations. More than any other swallow, it seems to fly for the pure pleasure of flight. The woodswallow has dispossessed the purple-martin in some localties, much as the cliff-swallow has driven away its congener of the barn. Ranging the whole continent, from Alaska and Greenland

the interior by turning its body around and pecking on every side. These galleries are from two to six feet beneath the surface, and the nest is spherical, lined with feathers and wool or straw. It usually lays five eggs, and feeds upon insects taken on the wing. It is a model of domestic virtues, brave, active on the wing, has a lively note, and attracts the notice of adults as much by incessant swarms flying in every direction as it does that of boys by the easy spoliation of its home. The chimney-swallow differs but slightly from that of the barn and cliff; but is not fond of human society, despite its choice of location. Few incidents of country life are more familiar or more striking than the vast collection of this swallow at twilight when work is giving place to play. Then countless thousands chase each other in endless gyrations through the air, until, the foremost disappearing, all the rest are entombed in the great chimney that is the common home, and is often closed by their nests. The males of this species occupy a common roost when they arrive, and it is used for successive centuries. The bird is truly a "swift," and is found over all the world, and captured by exposure almost equal to that of the samphire-gatherers. Its only note is a chip, and it rests only when clinging to the roosts. It leaves for the South in September as suddenly and as In Europe it is abundantly Familiar as all of these varieties are and have long been, it seems more singular that the old story of their hibernation should remain uncertain and in dispute to this day, and that our naturalists, discrediting Pontoppidan, should still be unable to solve an apparently easy problem, and assert that they do or do not share a peculiarity of the dormouse and bat.

found in caves.

The trogon, sometimes called the resplendent trogon when long-tailed, is found in Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America, Malabar, Sumatra, Ceylon, Java and Borneo, and in Africa. There are five genera. They are all insect-eaters, and hide in forest recesses during the day. The American species is some fourteen inches long, and the upper parts of the adult males are green, while beneath the color is scarlet or yellow. The quill feathers are jet-black in wing and tail, except two in the centre of the tail, which are green and dark yellow. The general effect is a metallic golden green, boldly contrasted with brown, black and scarlet. The claw has two toes before and

two behind. The beautiful or resplendent trogon is South American, and wins its name as well from its long tail, resembling that of the bird of Paradise and lyre-bird, as from its general beauty. An African variety bears the name of Narina, given by Le Valliant in honor of a young Hottentot damsel he admired. The Cuban species resembles our woodpecker; is about fourteen inches long, and bores into trees for its food. The Malabar example is more active and spirited than others, and like them is nocturnal. The sexes vary in color. They are all insectivorous and generally silent. When pairing, the male cries couroucohron in a slightly discordant key. The plumage is so delicate that it is usually spoiled by a shot. The skin is marvelously tender. The food includes caterpillars, but is mainly of butterflies, larvæ and insects, as well as berries. When domesticated it will eat vegetables. The trogon is associated with the history of America before the arrival of Columbus or Pizarro. The Toltec and Aztec kings, before Montezuma, kept multitudes captives, with numerous attendants to care for and feed them. Their purpose was to obtain the brilliant plumage, from which they made mantles and feather pictures. The Mexican nobles also used the feathers for headdresses and wrought them into mosaic pictures, one of which, representing Christ fainting beneath the cross, is or lately was in the Oxford Museum, England. The bird is even more rare than that of Paradise, and does not endure captivity.

The blue jay (Cyanurus cristatus), bad as his temper and reputation are, is a native American. He combines many of the traits of the crow and magpie, and has others of the same class peculiar to himself. Steller's jay, the Florida, Canada and ultramarine, are varieties of the same radical. He is found from Canada to Texas, and is as impudent, quarrelsome and selfish in one spot as another. He robs the nests of smaller birds, and eats their young or sucks their eggs. He picks out the eyes of wounded birds. He is tyrannical, and at the same time cowardly. He robs grainfields and orchards, and stores his plunder; then often forgets his deposits, which feed mice and squirrels. His diet includes corn and chestnuts, cherries and insects, and squirrels; and when one was placed in an aviary, it ate all its companions. Its natural note is a dissonant, harsh djáy―djáy—