CIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 187 



boring and fruit-loving moths, beetles, and the like, which 

 find the best possible circumstances for their multiplication 

 in the diseased trunks and juicy fruit of the apple, plum, 

 cherry, and peach. No part of the farm has so many 

 winged citizens as the orchard. 



The presence of horses, cattle, and sheep offers to flies 

 and other insect tribes excellent opportunities for the safe 

 rearing of their eggs in the dunghills and heaps of wet 

 straw always lying about barns, and attracts a great colony 

 of those minute beetles upon which the fly-catching birds 

 principally maintain themselves. The cattle-yard, there- 

 fore, forms a sort of game-preserve for such birds, and 

 many species flock thither. Swallows are hardly ever 

 found except in the vicinity of barns; the cow -bunting 

 receives its name from its habit of constantly associating 

 with cattle; and the king-bird finds the stable-yard his 

 most profitable hunting-ground. Near the habitations of 

 men, small birds also enjoy protection from hawks and 

 owls, which hesitate to venture away from the shelter of 

 the woods, and whose numbers are reduced, unwisely per- 

 haps, by incessant persecution.* 



* In several States of the Union bounties are offered, sometimes by county 

 authorities, sometimes by game-protective associations, and hundreds of hawks 

 and owls are killed annually. 



