Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/777

 BLUE BLUEFISH 757 of the legislative department in the council of the empire. As such he put the last hand to the compilation and publication of the general code of civil and criminal laws (Svod Zakonov). He was made a count of the empire in 1842. In 1846-'7 he was special envoy to Rome, to conclude a concordat. After the accession of Alexander II. in 1855 BludofF was appoint- ed president of the academy of sciences at St. Petersburg, and three years later was named on the committee to prepare measures for the emancipation of the serfs. In 1861, on the res- ignation of Prince Orloff, he became president of the council of ministers and of the council of the empire. BLUE, one of the seven primary colors. Like the green of the forest and the field, na- ture appears to have adopted the color for the sea and sky with reference to its soft and pleas- ing effect upon the eye. In these, its various shades are seen in their highest perfection, and they are also most brilliantly displayed in the sapphire and the turquoise. In the arts, it is derived for dyes from the products of the vege- table, animal, and mineral kingdoms. Indigo is the most common vegetable material for producing it. A great variety of berries are also used, the juices of which become blue by the addition of alkali or salts of copper. Among mineral substances, cobalt is the most remarkable for the brilliant blue produced by its salts. Cobalt blue is used for coloring glass and porcelain. Mountain blue is derived from carbonate of copper. Bremen blue or verditer is a greenish blue color, obtained from copper mixed with carbonate of lime. Prussian blue, used for chemical purposes and as a pigment, is obtained from horns, hoofs, or dried blood; other blues are obtained from combinations of molybdenum and oxide of tin. Ultramarine is a beautiful blue pigment prepared from the mineral lapis lazuli, which until recently has defied all imitation. BLUE, Prussian. See PEUSSIAN BLUE. BLUEBIRD, a North American bird of the genus sialia, order paiseres, tribe dentirostres, and family luscinidee. The best known species, 8. Wilsonii (Swains.), is about 7 inches long and 10 inches in extent of wings; the bill is black, about half an inch long, and nearly straight; the plumage of the male is soft and blended, above of a bright azure blue, below yellowish brown, and the belly white ; the fe- male has the upper parts of a hue approaching leaden, with the rest like the male, though duller; the young have the head and back brownish. It is found in all parts of the United States, excepting perhaps some of the Pacific territories ; it is very sprightly and familiar, and is always a welcome visitor. The nest is made either in a box prepared for it, or in any convenient hole in a tree; the eggs are from four to six, of a pale blue color. The food consists of various kinds of insects and spiders, and also the ripe fruits of the south. Its song is a soft agreeable warble, be- coming plaintive as winter approaches, at which season most of them repair to the south- ern states. There are two other species much resembling the above, S. Mexicana (Swains.) Bluebird (Sialiu Wilsonin. and S. aretiea (Swains.). The bluebird is one of the earliest of our spring songsters, and does good service in destroying beetles, grasshop- pers, grubs, wire-worms, and other similar pests; it rarely injures garden fruits, prefer- ring those of the sumach and the wild cherry. BLUE EARTH, a S. county of Minnesota, bounded N. partly by the Minnesota river, and intersected by the Blue Earth or Mankato ; area, 760 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 17,302. The Winona and St. Peter, the Minnesota and Northwestern, and the St. Paul and Sioux City railroads traverse the county. The chief productions in 1870 were 725,879 bushels of wheat, 198,060 of Indian corn, 467,575 of oats, 35,146 of barley, 65,393 of potatoes, 18,994 tons of hay, and 87,971 Ibs. of butter. There were 4,402 horses, 11,731 horned cattle, 6,690 sheep, and 5,652 swine. Capital, Mankato. l!l I I 1 1 1 1 1 is. or Blewfields, a river and town of Nicaragua, the latter on the Mosquito coast. The river is several hundred miles long, is navigable for 80 miles, and empties into an inlet of the Caribbean sea. It is also known as Eio Escon- dido. The town stands on an eminence at the mouth of the river, about 200 m. E. S. E. of Leon, and 150 m. N. of San Jos6, Costa Rica, and has about 500 inhabitants and a good har- bor. It was formerly the residence of the king of the Mosquito country. BLUEFISH (temnodon saltator, Cuv.), an acanthopterygian fish of the family of scombri- dee, called also the skipjack, and sometimes horse mackerel ; both of the latter terms are applied to other scomberoid fishes, and the last especially, on the New England coast, to a species of tunny. All the upper part of the