July 
goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will 
lodge.’’ It is true that they have followed 
closely in man’s wake, as he has advanced 
through the wilderness, making it to blossom as 
the rose ; but the poetry of the matter is quite 
upset by the fact that it is the vose that they are 
after, and not the man. We must recognize 
the fact that at heart birds are supremely prac- 
tical creatures, and that the uppermost question 
with them always is, ‘* What shall we eat, and 
what shall we drink?’’ ‘That is to say, their 
movements are always in the direction of the 
greatest food-supply. 
Man’s advent into every habitable region of 
the globe has been the signal for a wonderful 
upspringing of all forms of life around him. 
Cultivation of soil multiplies the variety and 
abundance of vegetable growth ; this luxuriance 
is the promoter of insect life, and in the vege- 
table and animal products are the nourishment 
of our song-birds. The depths of the forest af- 
ford meagre subsistence, at least as regards vari- 
ety, compared with the groves, orchards, gar- 
dens, and waysides, teeming with countless forms 
of plant and animal life, introduced directly and 
indirectly by man. 
The centre of abundance of birds is in the 
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