Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

kidneys, spleen, and liver clear the blood

of wastes.

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Cardiovascular System

Blueberry

Blueberries are small, dark blue fruits

that grow on bushes. They have a mildly

tart taste. Blueberries are eaten fresh or

used to make bakery goods and jams.

They contain vitamin C, vitamin A, and

iron.

Blueberry bushes are found in woods

and hilly areas of North America, Great

Britain, northern Europe, and Asia. In

the United States blueberries are grown

in Maine, New Jersey, Michigan, and

North Carolina.

Blueberry bushes produce flowers in the

spring. Each flower develops into a

single berry. For this reason botanists

(people who study plants) consider blueberries

to be true berries. Cranberries are

also true berries. Some other berries,

such as strawberries and raspberries, are

actually clusters of small fruits that grow

from a single flower.

Blueberry bushes tend to produce too

much fruit. This limits the size of the

fruit. It also increases the time that it

takes the fruit to grow to full size. Growers

remove some flower buds from blueberry

bushes to allow larger berries to

grow in a shorter time. Growers also

have improved the plants to produce

better-tasting fruit.

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Berry • Cranberry • Fruit

Bluebird

Bluebirds are songbirds named for the

males’ bright blue feathers. The soft

whistles of their song are among the

Blueberries are considered true berries

because of the way they develop. They start

as flowers, and each flower on a blueberry

bush produces a single berry.

The western bluebird is one of three types of

bluebird.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Bluebird 93

 

earliest sounds of spring in North

America. Bluebirds belong to the thrush

family. This means that they are related

to thrushes, robins, and nightingales.

There are three species, or types, of bluebird:

the eastern bluebird, the western

bluebird, and the mountain bluebird.

Bluebirds are found in fields, orchards,

parks, and gardens. Eastern bluebirds

live in eastern Canada and the eastern

United States. The western and mountain

types are found in western Canada

and the western United States. Many

bluebirds avoid cold winters by flying

south for the winter. Some of the birds

fly as far south as Mexico.

Most bluebirds are about 7 inches (18

centimeters) long. The males are mostly

blue, while the females are mostly

bluish gray. The male eastern and

western types have rusty-red-colored

breasts. The females of those types have

dull orange breasts. Bluebirds have

slender bills, which they use to eat

insects and fruit.

Bluebirds build their nests in holes, such

as in trees, fence posts, or nest boxes that

people make. The female lays four to six

eggs at a time.

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Nightingale • Robin • Songbird

Blue Ridge

Mountains

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a segment

of the Appalachian Mountains in

the United States. They extend from

Pennsylvania through parts of Maryland,

Virginia, North Carolina, and South

Carolina to Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia.

The range is quite narrow, only 5 to

65 miles (8 kilometers to 105 kilometers)

wide, and has average heights

between 2,000 and 4,000 feet (600 to

1,200 meters). The range includes the

Black, Great Smoky, and Unaka mountains.

The Blue Ridge spreads through several

national forests. The Shenandoah

National Park in northern Virginia and

the Great Smoky Mountains National

Park also lie in the Blue Ridge. The Blue

Ridge Parkway is a scenic highway established

in 1936 that extends through the

Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and

North Carolina. It covers 142 square

miles (368 square kilometers).

The Blue Ridge region is rather

isolated. Many people in this area work

in tobacco production, cattle raising,

and truck farming. The forests in the

ridge are a rich source of timber. The

94 Blue Ridge Mountains BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Blue Ridge region is known to have

more than 700 varieties of trees and

plants.

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Appalachian Mountains

Blues

The blues is a type of American music

that became popular in the early 1900s.

It is closely related to jazz. Instrumental

music is important in the blues. Guitar,

piano, and harmonica are typical blues

instruments. But singing plays the key

role in many songs. Rather than simply

tell a story, blues singers express their

feelings. These feelings are often sad.

Often the blues singer sings the first

part of a line of music. The instruments

then repeat or “answer” the part the

singer sang. Blues performers make up

parts of the music while performing it,

within certain rules. This is known as

improvisation.

The blues developed from the folk

music of black people in the American

South. That music included songs that

blacks sang while working in the fields

during the time of slavery. Later, in the

early 1900s, the black bandleader W.C.

Handy wrote blues songs that helped

make the style popular. In the 1920s

black singers such as Mamie Smith, Ma

Rainey, and Bessie Smith made the first

blues recordings.

In the first half of the 1900s many

blacks moved from country areas in the

South to cities in the North. They

brought the blues with them. Musicians

in Chicago played the biggest role in