The bluebird enjoys the preëminence of being the first bit of color that cheers our northern landscape. The other birds that arrive about the same time--the sparrow, the robin, the phœbe-bird--are clad in neutral tints, gray, brown, or russet; but the bluebird brings one of the primary hues and the divinest of them all. This bird also has the distinction of answering very nearly to the robin-redbreast of English memory, and was by the early settlers of New England christened the blue-robin. It is a size or two larger, and the ruddy hue of its breast does not verge so nearly on an orange, but the manners and habits of the two birds are very much alike. Our bird has the softest voice, but the English redbreast is much the most skilled musician. He has indeed a fine, animated warble, heard nearly the year through about English gardens and along the old hedge-rows, that is quite beyond the compass of our bird's instrument. On the other hand, our bird is associated with the spring as the British species cannot be, being a winter resident also, while the brighter sun and sky of the New World has given him a coat that far surpasses that of his transatlantic cousin. It is worthy of remark that among British birds there is no _blue_-bird. The cerulean tint seems much rarer among the feathered tribes there than here. On this continent there are at least three species of the common bluebird, while in all our woods there is the blue jay and the indigo-bird,--the latter so intensely blue as to fully justify its name. There is also the blue grossbeak, not much behind the indigo-bird in intensity of color; and among our warblers the blue tint is very common. It is interesting to know that the bluebird is not confined to any one section of the country; and that when one goes west he will still have this favorite with him, though a little changed in voice and color, just enough to give variety without marring the identity. The western bluebird is considered a distinct species, and is perhaps a little more brilliant and showy than its Eastern brother; and Nuttall thinks its song is more varied, sweet, and tender. Its color approaches to ultramarine, while it has a sash of chestnut-red across its shoulders,--all the effects, I expect, of that wonderful air and sky of California, and of those great western plains; or if one goes a little higher up into the mountainous regions of the West he finds the Arctic bluebird, the ruddy brown on the breast changed to greenish-blue, and the wings longer and more pointed; in other respects not differing much from our species.