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CHAPTER II. 



BIRDS, SOLITARY AND GREGARIOUS, ON ACCOUNT OP 

 FOOD. 



IT is one of the common amusements of the inhabi- 

 tants of Aleppo and other eastern places, while pro- 

 menading-, as their custom is, on the flat roofs of 

 their houses for the purpose of enjoying- a cool breeze, 

 to scatter grain, or make a motion as if they were 

 scattering grain, when, in a short time, flocks of 

 pigeons and other birds, though previously invisible, 

 will make their appearance at the well-known signal*. 

 In the same way we can attract to a particular point 

 all the fowls in a barn-yard, or the ducks or swans in 

 a pond, who will crowd eagerly to the spot where 

 they expect to obtain food. In the early spring also, 

 when the willows, in defiance of cold days and colder 

 nights, expand their palms, we have seen a numerous 

 assemblage of insects of very different species, 

 butterflies, bees, wasps, and various Diptera, all 

 crowding around the golden blossoms, attracted, no 

 doubt, by the rich perfume diffused around the 

 vicinity of the tree, and giving goodly token of the 

 honey to be there procured. 



The causes of the assemblage of species, otherwise 

 so different in habits, in such instances as these, are 

 very obvious and easily explained; but in many other 

 cases of animals congregating in numbers, the chain 

 which binds them together is more or less hidden. 

 We may mention the case, for example, of a flock of 

 sheep in a meadow huddling themselves so closely 

 * Volney, Voyage dans PEgypte et la Syrie, vol. ii. 



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