252 PECULIAR PRACTICE OF 



petite, by some mode or place of feeding; and 

 hence individuals are found as tenants of the home- 

 stead, the wild, the stream, the air, rock, down, 

 and grove in every place finding plenty, and ful- 

 filling their destination without rivalry or conten- 

 tion : nor perhaps is there any race of creatures 

 that associates more innocently, or passes their lives 

 more free from bickering and strife, than these our 

 land-birds do, persevering, from period to period, 

 with undeviating habits and propensities, mani- 

 festing an original appointment and fixed design of 

 Providence, whose bounteous table, wherever we 

 look around, is spread for all, and good things 

 meted out to each by justice, weight, and measure. 

 I am neither inclined to seek after, nor desirous 

 of detailing, the little annoyances that these wild- 

 ings of nature, in their hard struggles for existence, 

 may occasionally produce ; being fully persuaded 

 that the petty injuries we sometimes sustain from 

 birds are at others fully compensated by their ser- 

 vices. We too often, perhaps, notice the former, 

 while the latter are remote, or not obtrusive. I 

 was this day (Jan. 25) led to reflect upon the ex- 

 tensive injury that might be produced by the 

 agency of a very insignificant instrument, in ob- 

 serving the operations of the common bunting (em- 

 beriza miliaris) ; a bird that seems to live princi- 

 pally, if not entirely, upon seeds, and has its man- 

 dibles constructed in a very peculiar manner, to aid 



