July 



goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will 

 lodge." It is true that they have followed 

 closely in man's wake, as he has advanced 

 through the wilderness, making it to blossom as 

 the rose ; but the poetry of the matter is quite 

 upset by the fact that it is the rose that they are 

 after, andnot the man. We must recognize 

 the fact that at heart birds are supremely prac- 

 tical creatures, and that the uppermost question 

 with them always is, "What shall we eat, and 

 what shall we drink ? ' ' That is to say, their 

 movements are always in the direction of the 

 greatest food-supply. 



Man's advent into every habitable region of 

 the globe has been the signal for a wonderful 

 upspringing of all forms of life around him. 

 Cultivation of soil multiplies the variety and 

 abundance of vegetable growth ; this luxuriance 

 is the promoter of insect life, and in the vege- 

 table and animal products are the nourishment 

 of our song-birds. The depths of the forest af- 

 ford meagre subsistence, at least as regards vari- 

 ety, compared with the groves, orchards, gar- 

 dens, and waysides, teeming with countless forms 

 of plant and animal life, introduced directly and 

 indirectly by man. 



The centre of abundance of birds is in the 

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