Male: Back - rich azure blue; throat, breast and sides - chestnut; belly and under tail coverts - white; ends of wing quills - dusky; bill and feet - black.

Female: Paler blue, obscured with grayish brown. Length - six and one-half to seven inches.A summer resident in New England. In southern New England and particularly in the lower valley of the Connecticut a few bluebirds may be seen. From March to November the bluebirds are out in full force.'

Range: - Eastern United States to eastern base of Rocky Mountains; north to Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia; south, in winter, from Middle States to the Gulf and Cuba. Resident in Bermuda.Bluebirds eat army worms, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, spiders, caterpillars, locusts, moths and various bugs. If there is any pupil in the class to whom the esthetic side of bird life does not appeal, show him what an army of destroyers he is inviting among the fruits of which he is so fond, if he kills or in any way molests these benefactors or their young; show him of what he robs himself when he robs the nest.

Method of presentation: Teacher calls attention to the bluebird's beauty of plumage; to the blending and contrast of his blue coat and brown vest with the spring colorings. Ask the children to listen for robin's and bluebird's united song; to notice how beautifully bluebird accompanies robin's cornet, with sweet little ripplings and warblings.

Teach the children the great usefulness of the bluebird, lest some matter-of-fact, or cruelly inclined pupil, pronounce the birds "no good" and proceed to harm them or their eggs.

Bluebirds are fond of bird houses. Set as many pupils as possible to making bird houses. Any moderate sized wooden box makes a bird palace; cut two windows and a door; cover the box with loose bits of bark, if any can be obtained without stripping it from growing trees. (On no account let the children thus injure the trees for life.) If no bark is available, ordinary mosses and lichens from rocks will make a beautiful covering; if no moss is convenient, stray sticks and twigs may be fastened on in rustic fashion. (The idea of the decoration is to hide the white boards, which the birds do not admire, and to make the bird house look like a part of the tree to which it is to be fastened. (The girls will enjoy the decorating; the boys, the hammering, sawing and adjusting.)

Encourage the children to put some of the houses near their homes, even if they live where there is small chance of a bluebird's venturing into their street; for, tell them that if no other bird dare come to it, the sparrow will be glad of the shelter next winter; tell them, too, that the sparrow will eat brown tail moths enough this summer to pay his rent next winter.

The bluebird's nest is of dried grasses, of feathers, or of hair, or of all three, built inside a box, stump, or hollow tree. The bluebird will build about the first of May and will have two broods in a season. If he comes to your house, and is well treated and guarded from kitty, he will stay nearly all the season with his whole family, and come again next year.