186 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
weasels, skunks, rats, ete.—which catch them on their roosts, 
suck their eggs, and kill their fledglings. Snakes also are 
fond of them, and destroy many nests every season—in 
early summer subsisting almost alone on eggs. All these 
animals, particularly foxes, skunks, and serpents, are great- 
ly reduced in number by settlements, although it must be 
confessed that their absence is somewhat compensated for 
by the introduction of domestic cats, which go foraging 
through the woods, to the grief of all their feathered in- 
habitants. No longer in fear of their natural enemies, and 
learning that there is little reason to be apprehensive of 
harm from mankind, the small birds forsake their silent, 
shy manners, come out of the thickets where they have 
been hiding, and let their voices be heard in ringing tones, 
easily interpreted as rejoicing at deliverance from fear, and 
thanksgiving for liberty to sing as loud as pleases them. 
All small birds are more or less completely insectivorous 
(even the cone-billed seed-eaters having to feed their young 
with larve at first), and naturally congregate where this 
food is most abundantly supplied. There would seem to 
be enough anywhere; but the ploughing and manuring of | 
the soil facilitates the growth and increase of such insects 
as go throngh their metamorphoses in the ground; and the 
culture of orchards furnishes an excellent resort for many 
