FOUR RED BIRDS. 117 



often snows on the clay when it is raining on the sand. 

 Indeed, this may be the sole reason for all such marked 

 peculiarities in the distribution of our birds. 



To return to the red-bird. I have heard it stated that 

 their disappearance was largely due to the destruction 

 of the old apple-orchards. To prove this, it would have 

 to be shown that the introduction of the apple and gen- 

 eral planting of orchards caused a decided increase in 

 their numbers. This cannot be done ; and yet it is not 

 improbable that extensive orchards have, in a measure, 

 modified the habits of some birds. Ornithologists well 

 know that, in these extensive collections of fruit-trees, 

 certain species of birds are more surely found than in 

 the ordinary tracts of woodland ; and many birds show 

 a marked preference for apple-trees as nest-sites. 



The summer red-bird, although so conspicuous a spe- 

 cies, was not seen by Kalm, who mentions at length the 

 cardinal grosbeak. Might it have been a rare visitor 

 then, and subsequently become abundant? If so, it may 

 again come back to us as the years roll by. So may it 

 be! The same has happened with reference to the 

 mocking-bird. In 1734, and for many years after, these 

 outnumbered the brown-thrushes here in New Jersey. 

 We all know how rare they now are. 



The few glimpses that we now get of the summer 

 red-bird make him the more interesting, because they 

 afford us all the pleasure of a genuine discovery. So 

 unreasonable are we, generally, that we demand the fla- 

 vor of novelty in all that kindly nature vouchsafes to 

 offer us, and often affect weariness because there may 

 be* only the attractions offered by our most common 



