SEED-EATING BIRDS. 3 



tlie latter, where the trees are not only always in leaf, but 

 always in growth, there are none of those fat or farinaceous 

 buds which are found in winter upon even the evergreens of 

 the colder climates. 



It is true, that when summer does come in the high lati- 

 tudes, the productions of that season, whether animal or 

 vegetable, have little or no pause, because there is little or 

 no night. The produce is then very great, both in the insect 

 and the vegetable food of birds, and then the strangers from 

 lower latitudes migrate thither, to share in the abundance ; 

 and it is not unworthy of remark, that, in the regions to 

 which those insectivorous migrants resort in the summer, 

 there is a supply of succulent berries, increasing with the 

 latitude, which comes in when the insects begin to be fewer, 

 and enables the birds to feed themselves into sufficient 

 strength for their migration southward. The graminivorous 

 birds do not interfere much with that pulpy store ; the seeds, 

 the pips, and the hard winter berries, agree better with their 

 organization. 



Thus they have altogether a more polar locality. In the 

 temperate latitude of Britain, where the winds from the sea 

 keep the surface clear of snow for the greater part of the 

 winter, the greater number of them are resident ; and any 

 that do come as visitants, come only in the winter, and from 

 countries farther to the north, or where the snow falls more 

 thickly, or lies longer. They migrate more on the continent, 

 because the seasonal variations, being less tempered by the 

 vicinity of the sea, are greater there; and hence the occasional 

 visitants are more numerous in proportion to those that come 

 regularly, than in the case of the summer birds. 



So far as has been observed, the resident species of British 

 birds of this order are more numerous, in proportion to the 

 visitants and stragglers, than in the insectivorous birds ; and 

 as the visitants come at a time when birds flock or congregate, 



B2 



