BIRDS OF THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD. 



I. 



The singing-birds whose notes are familiar to us in 

 towns and villages and in the suburbs of cities are stran- 

 gers to the deep woods and solitary pastures. Our familiar 

 birds follow in the wake of the pioneer of the wilderness, 

 and increase in numbers with the clearing and settlement 

 of the country, not from any feeling of dependence on the 

 protection of man, but from the greater supply of insect 

 food caused by the tilling of the ground. It is well known 

 that the labors of the farmer cause an excessive multipli- 

 cation of all those insects whose larvse are cherished in the 

 soil, and of all that infest the garden and orchard. The 

 farm is capable of supporting insects in the ratio of its 

 capacity for producing fruit. These will multiply with 

 their means of subsistence contained in and upon the 

 earth ; and birds, if not destroyed by man, will increase 

 with the insects that constitute their food. 



Hence we may explain the fact, which often excites 

 surprise, that more singing-birds are seen in the suburbs 

 of a great city than in the deep forest, where, even in the 

 vocal season, the silence is sometimes melancholv. The 

 species which are thus familiar in their habits, though 

 but a small part of the whole number, include nearly all 

 the singing-birds that are known to the generality of our 

 people. These are the birds of the garden and orchard. 

 There are many other species, wild and solitary in their 

 habits, which are delightful songsters in the uncultivated 

 regions lying outside of the farm. Even these are rare 

 in the depths of the forest. They live on the edge of the 



