186 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 



weasels, skunks, rats, etc. which catch them on their roosts, 

 suck their eggs, and kill their fledglings. Snakes also are 

 fond of them, and destroy many nests every season in 

 early summer subsisting almost alone on eggs. All these 

 animals, particularly foxes, skunks, and serpents, are great- 

 ly reduced in number by settlements, although it must be 

 confessed that their absence is somewhat compensated for 

 by the introduction of domestic cats, which go foraging 

 through the woods, to the grief of all their feathered in- 

 habitants. No longer in fear of their natural enemies, and 

 learning that there is little reason to be apprehensive 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 

 thanksgiving for liberty to sing as loud as pleases them. 



All small birds are more or less completely insectivorous 

 (even the cone-billed seed-eaters having to feed their young 

 with larvae at first), and naturally congregate where this 

 food is most abundantly 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 tire 

 culture of orchards furnishes an excellent resort for many 



