THE WILLOW WREN. 151 



entirely upon insect food ; and its whole life is 

 passed in harmlessness and innocence. As it is the 

 earliest that arrives, so it is the last, I believe, of 

 our feathered choir that leaves us, except a few 

 lingering, irresolute swallows ; and we hear it 

 piping its final autumnal farewell even in October 

 at times, and sporting with hilarity and joy, when 

 all its congeners are departed. 



It is a difficult matter satisfactorily to compre- 

 hend the object of this bird in quitting another 

 region, and passing into our island. The chief 

 motives for migration seem to be food, a milder 

 climate, and quiet during the period of incubation 

 and rearing their young ; but the willow wren, and 

 some others of our insectivorous birds, appear to 

 have other purposes to accomplish by their annual 

 migrations. These little creatures, the food of 

 which is solely insects, could assuredly find a suffi- 

 cient supply of such diet during the summer months, 

 in the woods and thickets of those mild regions 

 where they passed the season of winter, and every 

 bank and unfrequented wild would furnish a secure 

 asylum for them and their offspring during the pe- 

 riod of incubation. The passage to our shores is 

 a long and dangerous one, and some imperative 

 motive for it must exist ; and, until facts manifest 

 the reason, we may, perhaps, without injury to the 

 cause of research, conjecture for what object these 

 perilous transits are made. We know that all 

 young creatures require particularly compounded 

 nutriment during their infant state ; and nature, as 



