BIRDS AND THEIR DAILY BREAD. 611 



food, usually peculiar to the East ; lemmings, by the snow-owl ; and 

 in former wars of great severity, the armies by wolves, hawks, and 

 ravens ; and I have been told by eye-witnesses that the relics of the 

 Grand Army were pursued in their disastrous retreat from Russia by 

 thousands of ravens. Many birds owe their specific diffusion to their 

 seeking out men, the products of their civilization, or their domestic 

 animals, to live upon them ; and many formerly strange species no 

 doubt find their way into new countries after the introduction of grain 

 and fruit-raising. 



The relation of subsistence to the propagation of birds is of the 

 highest importance ; upon it largely depend the time of breeding and 

 the number of the eggs and of the brood. We are accustomed, with- 

 out sufficient grounds, to assign the reason of our putting fowls to sit 

 in the spring, as well as the migrations of birds, directly to climatic 

 influences. We speak of the awakening of Nature, and it seems self- 

 evident to us that the bird's nest with its tender chicks is a necessary 

 part of it. Yet the time of year has hardly anything to do immedi- 

 ately with the propagation of birds, which is rather determined by the 

 presence of a sufficiency of proper food. 



In warm countries, such as Egypt, Ceylon, or Brazil, birds hardly 

 observe a fixed period in their nesting, but each pair sets about the 

 business whenever it finds itself in the most favorable conditions of 

 subsistence, so that we can find nests and eggs of the same species in 

 every month. The Falco eleonorm of Southern Greece breeds at the 

 unusual season (for a bird of prey) of August, and has its young in 

 September. Quails are plentiful in the country at that season, having 

 come down fat from the north, and in their multitude and helplessness 

 fall a ready prey to the young falcons, and a much richer support than 

 the birds can find in the spring, when, according to Erhardt's observa- 

 tions, no quails are ever taken in Greece. The Bombicilia Carolinen- 

 sis of North America breeds as far north as 40° in June ; it feeds its 

 young on berries and cherries. The cross-bill never asks about the 

 season or the temperature. It fixes its household indifferently in win- 

 ter amid ice and snow, and in the height of summer, provided only 

 sufficient nourishment for its children is present. The barn-owl like- 

 wise breeds irregularly. Its eggs and young have been found in Oc- 

 tober and November, but always in those years and places in which 

 field-mice are unusually prevalent. 



These few examples may suffice to show how, with birds, nearly 

 everything turns upon subsistence ; how the fact holds good not only 

 for individuals and species, but that it is a matter of fundamental im- 

 portance in their structure, their spread, and their habits, and how we 

 may, with perfect right, apply to birds the maxim, " Tell me what you 

 eat, and I will tell you who you are." — Translated for the Popular 

 Science Monthly from " Uhsere ZeU." 



