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there. The greater birds, like robbers, choose the 

 most dreary solitude for their retreats ; and, if they do 

 not find, they make a desert all around them. The 

 small birds fly from their tyranny, and take protection 

 in the vicinity of man, where they know their more 

 unmerciful foes will not venture to pursue them*." 



Understanding- this to be laid down as a general 

 principle, it is far from being consistent with fact ; 

 though it is partially true, as we shall elsewhere en- 

 deavour to show, that birds often follow the tract of 

 cultivation. In the pine forests of Hudson's Bay, 

 one of the wildest and most deserted places which 

 could be mentioned, the pine grosbeak (Pyrrhula 



Pine Grosbeak, or Hawfinch. 1 



* Animated Nature, iii, 204, 



