6*4 



ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 



Gulf, where the greater number pass the winter. To- 

 wards the commencement of May, when the insect 

 world has just assumed life or activity, innumerable 

 flocks of warblers (Sylvicola Sw.), flycatchers (Tyran. 

 nula Sw.), woodpeckers (Picus L.), maizebirds (Age- 

 laius V.), thrushes (Merula, Orpheus Sw.), hangnests 

 (Icterus 1).), and other families, make their first ap- 

 pearance in the United States, enlivening the forests by 

 their varied plumage, and delighting man by their me- 

 lodious song. .The arrival of these strangers occasions 

 a prodigious increase in the number of the feathered- 

 inhabitants; yet Providence has ordained that a pro- 

 portionate supply of food should be provided for all. 

 These birds generally feed 

 upon insects : while for the 

 pigeons, blue-birds, the red- 

 headed, Carolina, and golden- 

 shafted woodpeckers (fig. 21.), 

 and such others as partake also 

 of fruits and grain, the seasons, 

 in due course, provide an ample 

 repast of wild berries, the fruits 

 of the orchard, or the corn of 

 the field. When the process 

 of incubation is finished, and 



the young fully fledged, autumn is at hand ; the insect 

 world dies, or retires into concealment ; the fruits of 

 the earth fall to decay, or are gathered by the husband- 

 man. Then it is that the parents and 'their offspring 

 are taught to seek their own food in other climates : 

 they accordingly depart ; and, either congregating into 

 flocks or journeying singly, return once more to the 

 genial and ever verdant forests of the Western Indies. 

 Many of these have been traced to the islands, and many 

 to the adjacent coast of Mexico ; but scarcely more than 

 two or three species have yet been detected on the terra 

 firma of equinoctial America. 



(91.) The gallinaceae, or birds of game, are re- 

 markably few. Two species of grouse occur on the 



