How can we fail to regard its azure except as a fragment from the blue of the summer noonday arch?--_Silloway._ The bluebird always bears the national colors--red, white, and blue--and in its habits is a model of civilized bird-life.--_Dr. Cooper._ At the first flash of vernal sun among the bare boughs of his old home he hies northward to greet it with his song, and seems, unlike the oriole, to help nature make the spring.--_Baskett._ As he sits on a branch lifting his wings there is an elusive charm about his sad, quivering _tru-al-ly_, _tru-al-ly_. Ignoring our presence, he seems preoccupied with unfathomable thoughts of field and sky.--_Merriam._ And yonder bluebird, with the earth tinge on his breast and the sky tinge on his back, did he come down out of heaven on that bright March morning when he told us so softly and plaintively that if we pleased, spring had come?--_Burroughs._ He is "true blue," which is as rare a color among birds as it is among flowers. He is the banner-bearer of bird-land also, and loyally floats the tricolor from our trees and telegraph wires; for, besides being blue, is he not also red and white?--_Coues._ THE FIRST BLUEBIRD. Jest rain and snow! and rain again! And dribble! drip! and blow! Then snow! and thaw! and slush! and then Some more rain and snow! This morning I was 'most afeared To wake up--when, I jing! I seen the sun shine out and heerd The first bluebird of spring! Mother she'd raised the winder some; And in acrost the orchard come, Soft as an angel's wing, A breezy, treesy, beesy hum, Too sweet fer anything! The winter's shroud was rent apart-- The sun burst forth in glee-- And when _that bluebird_ sung, my heart Hopped out o' bed with me! --_Riley._ [Illustration: FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES. SWIFT FOX. 1/4 Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1899, NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.] THE KIT FOX. C. C. M. One of the smallest of the foxes is the kit fox (_Vulpes velox_), sometimes called the swift fox and also the burrowing fox, getting the latter name for the ability and rapidity with which it digs the holes in the ground in which it lives. It is an inhabitant of the northwestern states and of the western Canadian provinces, covering the region from southeastern Nebraska northwest to British Columbia. Its length is about twenty inches, exclusive of the tail, which is about twelve inches long. The overhair is fine, the back is a pure gray, the sides yellow, and the under parts white. The ears are small and covered with hair and the soles are also hairy. The kit fox is much smaller in size than either the gray or red fox, but has proportionately longer limbs than either of them.