112 INTEODUCTION OF BIEDS. 



and the transplantation of every object of agricultm'al produo 

 tion is, at a longer or shorter interval, followed by that of the 

 birds which feed upon its seeds, or more frequently upon the in 

 sects it harbors. The vulture, the crow, and other winged scav- 

 engers, follow the march of armies as regularly as the woK. 

 Birds accompany ships on long voyages, for the sake of the offal 

 which is thrown overboard, and, in such cases, it might often 

 happen that they would breed and become naturahzed in coun- 

 tries where they had been unknown before.* There is a famihar 

 story of an Enghsh bu'd which built its nest in an unused block 

 in the rigging of a ship, and made one or two short voyages with 

 the vessel while hatching its eggs. Had the young become 

 fledged while lying in a foreign harbor, they would of course 

 have claimed the rights of citizenship in the country where they 

 first took to the wing.f 



Nortliern States, where he is useful by destroying noxious insects and worms 

 not preyed upon by native birds. 



The humming-bird has resisted all efforts to acclimate him in Europe, 

 though they have not unf requently survived the passage across the ocean. 



In Switzerland and some other parts of Europe the multiplication of insec- 

 tivorous birds is encouraged by building nests for them, and it is alleged that 

 both fruit and forest trees have been essentially benefited by the protection 

 thus afforded them. A few years since a society was formed at Halle for 

 feeding wild birds in winter. This society established 22 stations in the neigh- 

 borhood of the town, where during the severe weather many hundreds of 

 birds were fed, and it was believed that the expense would be repaid a hun- 

 dred-fold by the destruction of noxious insects. 



* Gulls hover about ships in port, and often far out at sea, diligently watch- 

 ing for the waste of the caboose. While the four great fleets, English, French, 

 Turkish, and Egyptian, were lying in the Bosphorus, in the summer and 

 autumn of 1853, a young lady of my family called my attention to the fact 

 that the gulls were far more numerous about the ships of one of the fleets 

 than about the others. This was verified by repeated observation, and the 

 difference was owing no doubt to the greater abundance of the refuse from 

 the cook-rooms of the naval squadron most frequented by the birds. Persons 

 acquainted with the economy of the navies of the States in question, will be 

 able to conjecture which fieet was most favored with these delicate attentions. 

 The American guli follows the steamers up the Mississippi, and has been shot 

 1,500 miles from the sea. 



t Birds do not often voluntarily take passage on board ships bound for for- 

 eign countries, but I can testify to one such case. A stork, which had nested 

 near one of the palaces on the Bosphorus, had, by some accident, injured a 

 wing, and was unable to join his fellows when they commenced their winter 



