ANIMALS OF THE PRIMITIVE FOREST. 13 



in Nashville, I directed my course through Tennessee and 

 Virginia, and was often led through extensive ranges of 

 forest. I never saw birds in any part of the United 

 States so numerous as in the woods adjoining the city of 

 Nashville, which was surrounded with immense corn- 

 fields and cotton plantations. But while walking through 

 the country I could not help observing the scarcity of 

 birds and small quadrupeds in the woods whenever I was 

 at a long distance from any village or habitation. Some- 

 times night would draw near before I had reached a ham- 

 let or farm-house, where I might take lodging. On such 

 occasions the silence of the woods increased my anxiety, 

 which was immediately relieved upon hearing the cardi- 

 nal or the mocking-bird, whose cheerful notes always in- 

 dicated my approach to cultivated fields and farms. 



That this scarcity of animal life is not peculiar to the 

 American forest we have the testimony of St. Pierre, who 

 says of the singing birds : " It is very remarkable that all 

 over the globe they discover an instinct which attracts 

 them to the habitations of man. If there be but a single 

 hut in the forest, all the singing birds of the vicinity 

 come and settle round it. Nay, they are not to be found 

 except in places which are inhabited. I have travelled 

 more than six hundred leagues through the forests of 

 Eussia, but never met with small birds except in the 

 neighborhood of villages. On making the tour of fortified 

 places in Eussian Finland with the general officers of the 

 corps of engineers with which I served, we travelled 

 sometimes at the rate of twenty leagues a day without 

 seeing on the road either village or bird. But when we 

 perceived the sparrows fluttering about, we concluded we 

 must be near some inhabited place. In this indication 

 we were never once deceived." 



It may be remarked, however, that birds and quadru- 

 peds do not seek the company of man when they con- 



