WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



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 thanks- 

 giving for liberty to sing as loud as pleases them. 



All small birds are more or less completely in- 

 sectivorous (even the cone-billed seed-eaters hav- 

 ing to feed their young with larvae at first), and 

 naturally congregate where this food is most abun- 

 dantly 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 through their metamorphoses in the 

 ground; and the culture of orchards furnishes an 

 excellent resort for many 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 oppor- 

 tunities 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 



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