422 



Ts^W ENGLAND FARRIER. 



Sept. 



•while we live. Our bodies, also, are at his ser- 

 vice ; softer than the bodies of other trees, though 

 our toil is harder than theirs. Let him take them 

 as pleases him, for his houses and ships. So also 

 it may be well for these timid lowland trees to 

 tremble with all their leaves ; or turn their pale- 

 ness to the sky, if but a rush of rain passes by 

 them ; or to let fall their leaves at last, sick and 

 sore. But we pines must live carelessly amidst 

 the wrath of clouds. We only wave our branches 

 to and fro when the storm pleads with us, as men 

 toss their arms in a dream. And finally, these 

 weak lowland trees may struggle fondly for the 

 last remnants of life, and send up feeble saplings 

 again from their roots Avhen they are cut down. 

 But we builders with the sword perish boldly, our 

 dying shall be perfect and solemn, as our warring; 

 we give up our lives without reluctance, and for 

 ever. — Buskin. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 OBN-ITHOIiOGY. 



The wood, the mountain, and the barren waste, the 

 craggy rock, the river and tlic lalcc, arc never searched 

 in vain ; each have their peculiar inhabitants, that en- 

 liven the scene and please the philosophic eye." — Mon- 

 tague. 



Nature has, indeed, left no void, no bare hia- 

 tus in the great circle of her creations. The closer 

 our observations, the more extended are our dis- 

 coveries, and the more wonderful and interesting. 

 Throughout the great chain of nature there is no 

 vacuity ; everywhere is teeming life, in vegetable 

 or animal forms, concerning which something new 

 may be learned by observation every day. Our 

 New England landscapes are burdened with beau- 

 ty ; the rolling hills, luxuriant in pasturage and 

 noble forests ; the valleys laboring Avith manifold 

 crops and fruits ; the more distant mountains, 

 clothed with excessive verdure, rising grandly in 

 the blue distance as they meet the purer blue of 

 the sky. The flowers that spring up by the way- 

 side, in the forest and over our fields, are full of 

 beauty and interest to cheer the hearts of the not 

 too grovelling, and furnish delightful subjects for 

 investigation and thought to the observing. But 

 not less conspicuous in our surroundings are the 

 birds ; for they not only cheer the sight with their 

 restless activity, but charm the heart with their ef- 

 fluent music that often awakens the noblest emo- 

 tions of the soul. Their graceful forms and varied 

 colors never fail to please ; and that man who, in 

 the beautiful spring-time, when all nature is 

 awakening to new life and beauty, can listen to 

 their matin and vesper songs, and feel no thrill of 

 noble pleasure, must possess a grovelling soul, 

 capable at most of but little real enjoyment. 



The habits of birds are instructive, ever-varied 

 and interesting, each species possessing some 

 peculiar characteristics of its own. The study of 

 their habits and instincts aftbrds the highest recre- 

 ation, and, the mass know not how much of the 

 pleasure of existence they lose by counting these 

 minor things as beneath or unworthy their notice. 

 Adapted to various and widely-different modes of 

 life, some live almost wholly on the wing, as the 

 swallows, subsisting on insects, and never alight- 

 ing for food, but with a velocity outstripping the 

 gale, course ether from morning till night — now 

 almost lost to sight in the higher regions of air, 



and now skimming close to the meadow, the 

 fields and the waters of the rivers or lake, as their 

 insect prey is found to roam high or low in the 

 ambient air. Others subsisting on the same food, 

 watch from some convenient perch, and dart upon 

 the unsuspecting insects as they pass by them, 

 returning again to their watch ; while still others 

 of the insectivorous birds hunt their prey amid the 

 leafy thickets, the boughs of the orchard, or the 

 tree-tops of the forest, seldom alighting on the 

 ground. Others, as the finches, sparrows, and 

 many others, with feebler powers of flight, and 

 members better adapted for Avalking, seek their 

 food upon the ground, subsisting chiefly upon the 

 seeds of plants and the larvae of insects. Some 

 are found to feed wholly upon insects, some upon 

 insects and fruits, a few almost wholly upon juicy 

 fruits, others chiefly upon seeds, and others, of 

 omnivorous habits, upon all. Still others, again, 

 of aquatic habits, frequent the marshes and the 

 shores of the rivers and the lakes, and the ocean, 

 probing the mud for their peculiar prey, or watch- 

 ing for reptiles and unwary fish ; while others, fit- 

 ted by nature for floating along the surface of the 

 water, or diving beneath it, variously pursue their 

 varied food. Others still, more rapacious in their 

 character, prey upon birds and quadrupeds, in" 

 fact, upon all animated nature, exhibit great 

 strength and courage, and spread terror among 

 the weaker animals wherever they appear. 



Among the three hundred or more species of 

 birds found in New England, but a very few can 

 be set down as injurious to the agriculturist, the 

 greater part rendering him immense service in his 

 labors ; a few neither prey upon his fruit nor as- 

 sist him in his toils, and those who claim a tithe 

 of his products render ample remuneration in di- 

 minishing the insect hordes ; and I am convinced 

 that there are none absolutely injm-ious to his in- 

 terests. Certainly, then, we may well ask, why 

 persist in their destruction ? Why, in ridding 

 ourselves of a small evil, invite a greater ? No 

 kind of cultivation is aff"ected extensively, and 

 even this may, in a great measure, be prevented. 

 Experience proves that it is not so with insects 

 and their ravages ; "the fate of the locust, the a.p- 

 ple, the pear, and many other trees, shows, that if 

 insects fasten themselves upon one of them, we 

 must give it up as lost, for all that we at present 

 know. Surely, then, of two evils we should sub- 

 mit to the one which may possibly be prevented, 

 rather than invite and encourage one over which 

 we have no control." 



Of the birds embraced in the ornithology of 

 New England, but few are permanent residents ; 

 a few are rare and irregular visitants ; a few oth- 

 ers come to us in winter from the far North, to 

 escape the greater rigor of a more northern cli- 

 mate ; many merely pass through our region on 

 their journey to the distant northern parts of the 

 continent, whither they repair in spring, to pass 

 the period of incubation, and again on their re- 

 turn in autumn, to a more southern clime ; and 

 probably not more than half of our regular visit- 

 ants are known to pass the breeding season with- 

 in our borders. But few, comparatively, are 

 known to people in general, and very many only 

 to the closely observing ornithologist. 



Observes that renowned ornithologist, Alexan- 

 der Wilson — "For to me it appears that of all in- 

 ferior creatures, heaven seems to have intended 



