XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 



the umbrageous, wild, and unpeopled banks of the Mississippi, 

 and other of the larger rivers, no less than the vast pine-bar- 

 rens of the Southern States, are nearly without birds as perma- 

 nent residents. In crossing the desolate piny glades of the 

 South, with the exception of Creepers, Nuthatches, Wood- 

 peckers, Pine Warblers, and flocks of flitting Larks {Sturnella), 

 scarcely any birds are to be seen till we approach the mean- 

 ders of some stream, or the precincts of a plantation. The 

 food of birds being extremely various, they consequently con- 

 gregate only where sustenance is to be obtained ; watery situa- 

 tions and a diversified vegetation are necessary for their support, 

 and convenient for their residence ; the fruits of the garden 

 and orchard, the swarms of insects which follow the progress of 

 agriculture, the grain which we cultivate, — in short, everything 

 which contributes to our luxuries and wants, in the way of 

 subsistence, no less than the recondite and tiny enemies which 

 lessen or attack these various resources, all conduce to the 

 support of the feathered race, which consequently seek out and 

 frequent our settlements as humble and useful dependents. 



The most ingenious and labored nest of all the North Amer- 

 ican birds is that of the Orchard Oriole, or Troopial. It is 

 suspended, or pensile, like that of the Baltimore Bird, but, with 

 the exception of hair, constantly constructed of native mate- 

 rials, the principal of which is a kind of tough grass. The 

 blades are formed into a sort of platted purse but little inferior 

 to a coarse straw bonnet ; the artificial labor bestowed is so 

 apparent that Wilson humorously adds, on his showing it to a 

 matron of his acquaintance, betwixt joke and earnest, she 

 asked " if he thought it could not be taught to dam stock- 

 ings." Every one has heard of the Tailor Bird of India {Sylvia 

 sutoria) ; this little architect, by way of saving labor and gain- 

 ing security for its tiny fabric, sometimes actually, as a seam- 

 stress, sews together the edges of two leaves of a tree, in which 

 her nest, at the extremity of the branch, is then secured for the 

 period of incubation. Among the Sylvias, or Warblers, there 

 is a species, inhabiting Florida and the West Indies, the 

 Sylvia pensilis, which forms its woven, covered nest to rock iii 



