INTRODUCTION. 15 



often extensive, enabling them to change their residence annu- 

 ally, until they are finally driven away. Cat-birds frequently 

 return every year to the same thicket, and I have known the 

 Red-eyed Vireo to build his nest in the same tree where it was 

 built and robbed the year before. Likewise Pewees very often 

 choqse successively two or three building-sites very close to 

 one another. The less familiar species are not so attached to 

 particular spots, but generally build their nests each summer 

 in the same tract of land (a tree-warbler in the same woods, 

 etc.). Hawks (and occasionally even crows) become attached 

 to a certain grove or pine-wood, and build near the same 

 place several years in succession, sometimes though repeatedly 

 robbed. Woodpeckers (who always lay their eggs in holes) 

 do not usually, so far as my observations have extended, 

 occupy the same holes twice, but leave them to be used by 

 Chickadees, or other birds. Feelings of attachment are much 

 stronger in some species than in others, being often nearly ex- 

 tinct. They are more marked in civilized districts, where 

 there is less range of country than in other parts of the State. 

 Many birds forsake their haunts, if disturbed, but apparently 

 return sometimes after a long absence. The evidence of 

 identical birds returning to the same spot is very strong, par- 

 ticularly in the case of individuals peculiarly marked. 



O. There are not many birds, who, in a temperate climate, 

 do not habitually raise a second brood ; and there are probably 

 very few, who do not do so, if the first is broken up or de- 

 stroyed. They rarely raise the second in the same nest as the 

 first, but generally build another (often hurriedly) near the 

 site of the former, particularly if that has been disturbed or 

 removed. The principal exceptions to this latter statement 



