Encyclopædia americana. A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new ed.; including a copious collection of original articles in American biography; on the basis of the 7th ed. of the German Conversations-lexicon. Ed. by Francis Lieber, assisted by E. Wigglesworth ...

BLUCHER —BLUEBIRD. 1:43
executed by Schadow in Berlin. B. died, nary time of mating, when the male blueafter a. short illness, at his. estate of Krib- bird.is observed to be extremely devoted.
Iowitz, in Silesia, Sept. 12, 1819, aged to the female, and shows. the ardor of his.
almost 77 years. June 18, 1826, a statue attachment by every attention in his pow.
of bronze was erected to him, in Berlin, er, by the rapturous animation of his song,
12 feet in height, modelled by Rauch, and the angry jealousy with which he reand cast by Le Quine and IReisinger.- pels the approaches of a rival. The nest
B. was not so eminent for military sci- of the former year is then repaired, and
ence as for ability in action. He himself the female begins to lay her eggs, usually
often acknowledged this, when he was five, sometimes six, of a pale-blue color,
praising the merits of Gneisenau, to whose Two or three broods are raised in a seaassistance he was greatly indebted. In. son, the youngest of which are taken care
battle, however, he had the eye of a fal- of by the male, while the mother is still
con. His, simplicity, good-nature and attending to the nest. The principal food
bravery endeared him to his soldiers, of this species is insects, especially large
who loved him like a father. His ad- beetles, and other hard-wing or coleoptedresses and proclamations. are distin- rous bugs, to be found about dead or rotguished for their brevity, precision and ting trees: berries, persimmon, and the
simplicity, forming a striking contrast to seeds of various plants, are also discovered
the high-sounding French proclamations in their stomachs. Large and numerous
of the time. (See Bluecher's Lebensbe- tape-worms infest their bowels, and they
schreibung (Blicher's Life), by Varnhagen are also exceedingly annoyed by vermin
von Ense, Berlin, 1827.) externally. Wilson says, that, in this reBLUE. (See Color.) spect, they are more plagued than any
Blue, Prussian; a coloring matter, of a other bird, except the woodcock. The
pure dark-blue color, a dull fracture, ino- spring and summer song of the bluebird
dorous and insipid, insoluble in water, is a soft and often-repeated warble: in
spirits of wine or ether; it is soluble only the month of October, his song changes
by the action of corrosive alkalies. The to a single plaintive note. About the
discovery of this color was accidentally middle of November, the bluebirds disapmade, in 1704, by Diesbach, a manufac- pear, though, occasionally, one or two
turer of colors, who, with the intention of may be seen during the winter, in mild
precipitating the coloring matter from weather. The manners of this species
cochineal, with which alum and vitriol of are so gentle, and they render so much
ilon were dissolved, procured some alkali service by the destruction of insects, that
from the laboratory of Dippel. This al- they are always regarded with favor by
kali, which Dippel had been heating with the farmer. The male bluebird is six
some animal matter, produced a beautiful inches and three quarters long, with very
blue precipitate. Dippel, discovering that full and broad wings. All the upper
the alkali had acquired this power of parts are of a rich sky-blue, with purple
forming a blue precipitate of iron on ac- reflections: the bill and legs are black.
count of its mixture with animal oil, soon The female is easily known by the duller
learned to prepare it in a more simple cast of the plumage on the back, and by
way, since all animal substances, and the red on the breast not descending so
even all vegetables, which contain much low as in the male, and being much
azote, will give the same result. It is, fainter. The bluebird inhabits the whole
however, necessary, that all the materials of the U. States, also Mexico, Brazil, Guishould be perfectly pure, since the purifi- ana and the Bahama islands.-Wilson
cation would be too expensive. The ad- states that " nothing is more common, in
dition of alum gives to this blue more Pennsylvania, than to see large flocks of
body and a brighlter color. This blue these birds, in the spring and fall,'passing
substance is, a prussiate of iron (52 parts at considerable heights in the air, from
red oxyde of iron, and 48 of prussic acid). the south in the former, and fiom the
The alumine added amounts to from 20 to north in the latter season. I have seen,
80. per cent.; but the greater the quantity, in the month of October, about an hour
the poorer is the quality of the blue. after sunrise, 10 or 15 of them descend
BLUEBIRD (sylvia sials, Wils.; saxico- from a great height, and settle on the top
la stalis, Bonaparte). This beautiful little of a tall, detached tree, appearing, from
bird is one of the earliest messengers of their silence and sedateness, to be stranspring, and is occasionally seen as early gers and fatigued. After a pause of a few
as the month of February, in mild sea- minutes, they began to dress and arrange
sons. The middle of March is the ordi- their plumage, and continued so employ