572 



FAKMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. ft 



ways niii»mte by night, which accounts for the 

 iuildenness of their appearance and disappear- 

 nnc.e. In our forests we sometimes find hollow 

 trees nearlv filled with leathers, bonesand remains 

 ol' decayed birds, and it was supposed that in these 

 trees the chimney swallow lay in a state of torpid- 

 ity through the winter season. It is now known, 

 however, that these trees are the favorite resort or 

 roosting places oi" these birds, while collecling lor 

 Iheir migrations; the trees serving the purpose of 

 chimneys in older countries. A Tew years since, 

 a (lock of these swallows collected for migration 

 on Long Island, made their rendezvous in a chim- 

 ney near Brooklyn, and i)eing driven into a room 

 beiow were captured to the number of several 

 thousands. The bank or cliff swallow also col- 

 lects in great numbers previous to migration, and 

 these birds are so sensitive of cold, that sometimes 

 before their arrangements are completed a prema- 

 ture fr-ost will so benumb them that they may be 

 taken in creat quantities. The hint thus received 

 is not tlisregarded: and about the lime they disap- 

 pear in th'e United States, they appear in the 

 equatorial resions of Amerif^a, where it is ascer- 

 tained that they, in common with many other mi- 

 gratory birds, rear a second brood of young. 



It sometimes happens that birds of delicate hab- 

 its and very sensitive to a depression of tempera- 

 ture, return from their residence in the south be- 

 fore the Slate of the seasons in this latitude war- 

 rants such a movement, and the consequerice is 

 that numbers perish. In the j^ear 1S34, during 

 the severe frost and snow of the 14ih of May, 

 numbers of tlie scarlet tanagers were picked up 

 in the woods and fields, enticed from their winter 

 homes by the previous warm weather; and last 

 spring, alter some fine warm weather in the same 

 month, followed by a low teiriperature, we ob- 

 eerved at one time some sixteen or eighteen of 

 these birds, on the sunny side of a piece of woods, 

 scarcely able to dy and evidently repenting their 

 premature movement. 



The changes in appearance which many birds 

 undergo previous to migration must have been no- 

 ticed by all. These occur in a striking manner in 

 that familiar bird, the bobolink or meadow black- 

 bird, as he is called in the north, or rice bunting of 

 the south. At the time of their arrival li-om the 

 south, and during the fore part of the year the 

 male is easily distinguished by his eprightliness, 

 his variegated and brilliant colors, and his spirited 

 •ong. After the young make their appearance 

 abroad, his song gradually ceases, his color fades, 

 and before the period of migration arrives, he has 

 assumed the brown sombre hue he wears through 

 the winter, and in voice and appearance is with 

 difficulty distinguished from the young or the 

 females of the flock. Such is his appearance, 

 when in countless thousands on the progress 

 eouthward, they find liiod and rest in the rice 

 fields of Carolina and Georgia. 



There ares^ome kinds of birds that perform their 

 migration in such flocks as to be productive of se- 

 rious injury to farmers by depredating on crops not 

 houped and secured at the time. Late sown oats 

 not unfrequently attract the blackbird in multi- 

 tudes; and we have seen sad havoc made m the 

 fields of golden corn by these same nu'gratory 

 hordes. The crow too, since its numbers have so 

 greatly increased, is becoming seriously trouble- 

 toma tt tfee period oi' annual migration. It not 



only attacks the cornfield, or such grain as may be 

 lingering in the fields, but ftlunders orchards of 

 their sweet apples, and ravages the fields of new 

 sown wheat. Immense flocks, almost rivalling" 

 those that during the winter congregate in the 

 swamps and marshes of the Delaware bay and 

 the eastern shore of Maryland, have this year 

 shown themselves in various parts of the country, 

 and wherever they have for a few days located 

 themselves, they have done great damage in the 

 ways enumerated. We have this year heard our 

 liirmers speak of their orchards in which every 

 sweet apple was destroyed, and of their new sown 

 wheat fields in which every uncovered grain was 

 picked up, and the just sfirouting ones gathered to 

 such an extent that much injury it was feared in 

 some instances would ensue. The distance to 

 which the crow retires from our latitude is so limi- 

 ted, that a day or two of moderate weather and a 

 south wind usually brings up more or less of them 

 to feast on the animals that, during our winters, 

 owing to the want of proper food or great negli- 

 gence, perish in far too great numbers on our 

 farms. It is indeed probable from their hardy 

 habits, and carnivorous natures, that some of these 

 birds do not leave the country at all, but during the 

 most severe weather shelter themselves in the 

 thickest pine or hemlock swamps. 



Every one must be sensible of the pleasure he 

 has experienced, when alter our long and gloomy 

 winters the approach of spring and summer is an- 

 nounced by the sweet song of the sparrow, and 

 the familiar notes of the robin and bluebird. These 

 birds are the earliest to show themselves with us, 

 and announce that the stern dominion of winter 

 has passed away. Later comes the tanagers and 

 the oriole, the barn swallows and the other fami- 

 lies of the fly catchers; but we can hardly deem 

 ourselves secure from the sleet and snow, until 

 the shrill twitter of the chimney swallow is heard 

 nearly the first week in May, a gratifying proof 

 that 'the winter is over and gone,' and that the 

 labors of the husbandman may with safely be re- 

 sumed. The song of the brown thrush, like the 

 blossomins: of the dog-wood, is by many consider- 

 ed as indicating the lime to commence planting in 

 the north, while in the south, the cry of the night 

 hawk, serves, with the cotton and corn grower, to 

 announce the proper period of commencing opera- 

 tions. Whatever justice there may be in these 

 suppositions, it is clear that birds by their myste- 

 rious instinct appear to decide in most cases cor- 

 rectly on the weather; and that a knowledge of 

 their habits, independently of the many sources of 

 pleasure the pursuit opens to us, may be of esaien- 

 lial use in the prosecution of agriculture. 



REMARKS ON THE INJUSTICE AND ILL-PO- 

 LICY OF THE HIGHER RATES OF POSTAGE 

 CHARGED ON PERIODICAL MAGAZINES IN 

 GENERAL, AND ON THE FARMERs' REGIS- 

 TER, IN PARTICULAR. 



A correspondent, for wli03e inteJligence and judg- 

 ment, we entertain very hii^h respect, suggests (page 

 561,) tfic propriety and good policy of tlie correspon- 

 dence of agricultural journals being permitted by law 

 to pass through the mails, witfiout being subjected to 

 postage. Considering the proposition simply as affect- 



