244 HISTORY OF 



There is still another reason for these little 

 birds avoiding the depths of the forest, which 

 is, that their most formidable enemies usually 

 reside there. The greater birds, like robbers, 

 choose the most dreary solitudes 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. 



All birds, even those of passage, seem content 

 with a certain district to provide food and centre 

 in. The red-breast or the wren seldom leaves the 

 field where it has been brought up, or where its 

 young have been excluded ; even though hunted, 

 it flies along the hedge, and seems fond of the 

 place with an imprudent perseverance. The fact 

 is, all these small birds mark out a territory to 

 themselves, which they will permit none of their 

 own species to remain in ; they guard their do- 

 minions with the most watchful resentment ; and 

 we seldom find two male tenants in the same 

 hedge together. 



Thus, though fitted by nature for the most 

 wandering life, these little animals do not make 

 such distant excursions, during the season of their 

 stay, as the stag or the leveret. Food seems to 

 be the only object that puts them in motion, and 

 when that is provided for them in sufficient plen- 

 ty, they never wander. But as that is seldom 

 permanent through the year, almost every bird is 

 then obliged to change its abode. Some are call- 

 ed birds of passage, because they are obliged to 



