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Show The Bluebird's Plight That old song of the 1920's "Bye, Bye Blackbird," might be applied to the Bluebird these days. The bluebird may be a symbol of happiness, as the popular songwriters say, but there is little job among bluebird lovers these days. This popular little songster, member of the thrush family and politician enough to be the state bird of New York and Missouri, has become so scarce as to be almost totally absent throughout much of its normal range. The National Audubon Society calls it a "disaster species." The hermit thrust, Eastern phoebe and house wren also were termed disaster species" by the National Audubon Society ifter drastic population declines in 1958, declines attributed argely to severe winter weather. I The hermit thrush and phoebe are "better off" and the house wren appears to be "doing well" many places in I960, according to the Society. But Old Man Weather dealt the bluebird another mortal blow last March when blizzards and record-breaking cold swept through the border states and southward, depriving the birds of food and freezing many to death. |