connected mth Objects of Natural History. 563 



early fruit. The catbird has a particular partiality for the 

 finest mellow pears, which are also particular favourites with 

 the farmer; but the catbird has frequently the advantage of 

 the farmer by snatching off the first-fruits of these delicious 

 productions, and the farmer takes revenge by shooting him 

 down with his gun, as he finds old hats, windmills, and scare- 

 crows are no impediment in his way to these forbidden fruits ; 

 and nothing but this resource, the ultimatum of farmers as 

 well as kings, can restrain his visits. The boys are now set 

 to watch the cherry trees with the gun, and thus commence a 

 train of prejudices and antipathies that commonly continue 

 through life. Perhaps, too, the common note of the catbird, 

 so like the mewing of the animal whose name it bears, and 

 who itself sustains no small share of prejudice ; the homeliness 

 of its plumage ; and even its familiarity, so proverbially known 

 to breed contempt, may also contribute to this mean, illiberal, 

 and persecuting prejudice: but with the generous and the 

 good, the lovers of nature and of rural charms, the confi- 

 dence which this familiar bird places in man, by building in 

 his garden under his eye, the music of his song, and the 

 interesting playfulness of his manners, will always be more 

 than a recompense for any little stolen morsels^ he snatches." 

 (Wilson's Amer. Ornith.^ Professor Jameson's- edit., ii, 100.) 

 [The amiable feeling expressed in the latter of these remarks 

 of Wilson's is quite kindred to that breathed throughout that 

 delightful poem, " An Invitation to the Feathered Race, by 

 the Rev. Mr. Graves : " of this poem the last stanza is, 



" Let then this league betwixt us made 

 Our mutual interests guard. 

 Mine be the gift of fruit and shade ; 

 Your songs be my reward."] 



The Storm Petrel is one of those luckless birds which, having 

 been once associated with superstitious ideas, can never after- 

 wards regain the good name they have undeservedly lost. 

 Storm petrels are generally seen either dusring the continu- 

 ance of, or immediately previously to, a storm. Their low and 

 wailing cry of weet, weet, mingled with the dashing of the 

 wild and foaming surges, and the roar of the rushing blast, 

 inspires the minds of the hardiest seamen with a momentary 

 awe. Termed emphatically the bird of storm, it faces the 

 northern tempest when raging with its utmost fury, and seats 

 itself on the agitated crest of the mountain wave as calmly as 

 if resting on the surface of an untroubled lake. This harm- 

 less bird is universally regarded by sailors with distrust and 



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