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CIVILIZING. INFLUENCES. 187 
boring and fruit-loving moths, beetles, and the like, which 
find the best possible circumstances for their multiplication 
in the diseased trunks and juicy fruit of the apple, plum, 
cherry, and peach. No part of the farm has so many 
winged citizens as the orchard. 
The presence of horses, cattle, and sheep offers to flies 
and other insect tribes excellent opportunities for the safe 
rearing of their eggs in the dunghills and heaps of wet 
straw always lying about barns, and attracts a great colony 
of those minute beetles upon which the fly-eatching birds 
principally maintain themselves. The cattle-yard, there- 
fore, forms a sort of game-preserve for such birds, and 
many species flock thither. Swallows are hardly ever 
found except in the vicinity of barns; the cow- bunting 
receives its name from its habit of constantly associating 
with cattle; and the king-bird finds the stable-yard his 
most profitable hunting-ground. Near the habitations of 
men, small birds also enjoy protection from hawks and 
owls, which hesitate to venture away from the shelter of 
the woods, and whose numbers are reduced, unwisely per- 
haps, by incessant persecution.* 
* In several States of the Union bounties are offered, sometimes by county 
authorities, sometimes by game-protective associations, and hundreds of hawks 
and owls are killed annually. 
