298 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



this phenomenon ; but does not the influence of man 

 contribute also to the effect*?" 



Goldsmith gives a very different turn to the matter, 

 denying, in fact, that song-birds are found in wild 

 places. Speaking of small birds, he says, " as they 

 are the favourites of man, so they are chiefly seen 

 near him. All the great birds dread his vicinity, and 

 keep to the thickest darkness of the forest, or the 

 brow of the most craggy precipice ; but these seldom 

 resort to the thicker parts of the wood ; they keep 

 near its edges, in the neighbourhood of cultivated 

 fields, in the hedge-rows of farm -grounds, and even 

 in the yard, mixing with the poultry. It must be 

 owned, indeed, that their living near man is not a 

 society of affection on their part, as they approach 

 inhabited grounds merely because their chief pro- 

 vision is to be found there. In the depth of the 

 desert, or the gloom of the forest, there is no grain 

 to be picked up; none of those tender buds that are 

 so grateful to their appetites ; insects themselves, 

 that make so great a part of their food, are not 

 found there in abundance, their natures being un- 

 suited to the moisture of the place. As we enter, 

 therefore, deeper into uncultivated woods, the silence 

 becomes more profound ; everything carries the look 

 of awful stillness; there are none of those warblings, 

 none of those murmurs that awaken attention, as 

 near the habitations of men; there is nothing of that 

 confused buzz, formed by the united, though distant, 

 voices of quadrupeds and birds ; but all is profoundly 

 dead and solemn. Now and then, indeed, the tra- 

 veller may be roused from this lethargy of life, by 

 the voice of a heron, or the scream of an eagle ; but 

 his sweet little friends and warblers have totally for- 

 saken him. There is still another reason for these 

 little birds avoiding the depths of the forest; which 

 is, that their most formidable enemies are usually 

 * Wood's Buffon, xi. 14. 



