96 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Feb. 



vermin. In the month of May I tied to the up- 

 right limb of an apple tree, a jug which I had fixed 

 for their accommodation ; also a box, which I placed 

 upon the ridge-pole of a shed ; in a few days I 

 heard the merry song of a male as he sat upon the 

 top of the box, and for two days he sang almost 

 incessantly ; at times he would fly to the jug and 

 curiously examine it, then return to the box — con- 

 stantly in motion when not in song. On the morn- 

 ing of the third day a female arrived — shy and 

 coy, and as she became more familiar, he became 

 more vivacious ; it seemed as though his little bo- 

 som would burst with ecstasy of joy, as he led her 

 to and from each place that had been erected for 

 their use. 



The next two days seemed to be spent by them 

 in viewing the orchard and premises generally, par- 

 ticularly the pig-stye, barn and bee-house; the lat- 

 ter building being a place of resort for them 

 through the summer at twilight, at which time 

 they destroyed numbers of bee-moths. On the 

 fourth day the female commenced carrying smal 

 dried sticks into the jug, and continued with thisl 

 work until she had filled it nearly full, placing 

 them on the top in a circular form, leaving a cav- 

 ity, in which she made the nest of fine dried grass, 

 and lined it lavishly with feathers. 



It is invariably their custom to nearly fill the 

 cavity they have selected with sticks before they 

 build their nest, unless such a cavity is very large ; 

 and in every instance, I have noticed that the top 

 of the nest was above the place of their entrance. 



Danversport. A. F. 



sions of the rich luxuriance of animal life in the 

 ocean, and reveals to the astonished senses the con- 

 scousness of the universahty of being." 



PROFUSION OF LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 



Not a shell or a stone is bro 'ght up, but is 

 thronged with living beings. Every branch of 

 weeds gives shelter to multitudes of creatures — 

 some temporary lodgers, seme permanent resi- 

 dents. Life is a parasitic upon life. The surpula 

 builds its stony case on the abode of the shell-fish, 

 and the delicate lace- work of the moss-coral over- 

 spreads the surpula. Over the stem of the sea- 

 weed creeps the graceful plumes of the zoophyte 

 sprmg. These, again, are thickly invested by the 

 pretty cells of many smaller species ; and they in 

 turn, minute as they are, often bear in profusion 

 the curious forms of microscopic animacuLe. Let 

 us take a stone from the heap that is lying in our 

 boat. It is a perfect museum in itself. It is richly 

 colored in parts by the nullipore — one of the lowest 

 forms of vegetable life, which does for the scenery 

 of the ocean, what the moss and 'the lichen do for 

 the scenery of the u])per world. Here is a circular 

 cluster of cells, "looking like beautiful lacework, 

 carved in ivory ;" here a little saucer, of the purest 

 whiteness, containing within a number of stony- 

 tubes, the habitation of a whole company of tiny 

 polyples. A sponge overgrows one portion of the 

 stone, itself the home of many a living thing ; a sea 

 anemone has possession of another. The little en- 

 crimite is present, and near it a small star fish. 

 There are worms, too, in plenty ; and more of life 

 and beauty than we have space to describe. It is 

 pleasant to think of the happy existence a single 

 stone may support. 



The forms to which we have chiefly referred are 

 visible to the unassisted eye ; but, as Humboldt re- 

 marks, "the application of the microscope increas- 

 es in the most striking manner, our impres- 



MIGEATION OF PLANTS. 



Botanists have long been convinced that the 

 facts connected with the diffusion of plants may of- 

 ten be explained by an inquiry into the structure 

 of their seeds, the lightness of these, and their ca- 

 |)ability of teansportal ion by winds ; by their tex- 

 ture preserving them from destruction in the w^aters 

 of the ocean ; by the prevalence of particular cur- 

 rents in the air or sea ; or by the presence or ab- 

 sence of mountainous barriers, or other obstacles to 

 their dispersion. It had been ol)served that {the 

 God of) nature has provided a variety of methods 

 for the diffusion of seeds. Many such have been 

 noticed by naturalists, and their oj)erations has been 

 illustrated by facts well ascertained. The most im- 

 portant are doubtless winds, or rivers, or marine 

 currents. The former convoy the lighter kinds of 

 seeds to an incalculable distance, and the latter are 

 well known to transport others occasionally from 

 the most remote couniries. Besides these more 

 general causes, it is well known that seeds nre of- 

 ten conveyed from foreign countries, which were 

 transported in commerce. Various ])lants are well 

 known to have been introduce into Europe by the 

 accidental mixture of their seeds with rice brought 

 from the East or West Indies, and those tro])ical 

 countries have interchanged some of their jjroduc- 

 tions in a similar way. Some seeds are capal)le of 

 preserving their vitality in the stomach of birds, and 

 arc thus propagated. Such are the mistletoe and 

 juniper. A number of facts are upon record, which 

 prove that the migration of jjlants by means of cur- 

 rents in the ocean to distant shores, where, if the 

 climate is congenial to them, they form new colo- 

 nies, is not a matter of conjecture, but a thing 

 which actually takes place. Several remarkable in- 

 stances of this description are recorded in the 

 AmancBitates Academicae. It is stated that the 

 seeds of several plants of equinoctial countries are 

 occasionally collected in the Hebrides. — Pritchard's 

 Physical History of Mankind, 



Our Summer Birds.— The attention of the 

 reader is called to a highly interesting article on 

 one of our summer birds, the Tyrant, Fly-Catcher, 

 or King Bird, well known to all who visit the fields 

 in the summer. It is wTitten by Augustus Fow- 

 LKR, Esq., of Danvers, Mass., a brother of S. P. 

 Fowler, Avhose articles in our columns on "The 

 Birds of J^tew England," have won for him an 

 enviable reputation. Both of these gentlemen are 

 deeply imbued with a sense of the beautiful in na- 

 ture, and have a high appreciation of the charms 

 of rural life, — and thus their writings touch a 

 chord in every human heart. We welcome "A. 

 F." to our columns, and feel confident that the 

 reader will welcome him too. 



Virginia Farmer. — Harrisonburg, Rockingham 

 Co., Va. By Wm. G. Stev-ens.— Filled with valu- 

 able reading. We are glad to see agricultural pa- 

 pers taking root in the Southern States. 



