16 ANIMALS OF THE PRIMITIVE FOREST. 



their way over hundreds of miles between their different 

 repasts. This cannot be said of the grouse, the turkey, 

 and the partridge, whose feeble powers of flight confine 

 them to a narrow extent of territory ; and these birds 

 must have been frequently robbed of their farinaceous 

 stores by flocks of wild pigeons during their itinerant 

 foraging. 



There are many species of birds which we associate 

 with the wild- wood because they breed and find shelter 

 there, but if we watched their habits we should learn 

 that even these solitary birds make the cultivated grounds 

 their principal feeding-places. Such are the quail, the 

 partridge, and very many of our game-birds. The quail 

 and the partridge are omnivorous, but, like our common 

 poultry, are more eager to seize a grub or an insect than 

 a grain of corn. A potato-field is hardly less valuable 

 to a flock of quails than a field of corn, and affords more 

 sustenance to the snipe and the woodcock than any 

 other grounds. But these birds, as well as others, have 

 diminished as those natural advantages have increased 

 that should promote their multiplication. 



Even our sylvias and thrushes, the most timid of all 

 the winged tribe, birds hardly ever seen except in lonely 

 woods, multiply with the clearing of the country and 

 the increased abundance of their insect food. The vesper 

 thrushes, that shun the presence of man, and will become 

 silent in their musical evening if the rustling of the 

 bushes indicates the approach of a human footstep, are 

 more numerous in the woods of Cambridge than in any 

 other part of the country. These are chiefly of maple, 

 filled with underbrush, and afford the birds a harbor and 

 a shelter, while the adjoining fields, in a state of the high- 

 est tillage, supply them plentifully with their natural 

 food, consisting of worms and the larvae of insects. The 

 timid habits of these solitary birds are their chief pro- 



