170 Mr. /. W. Dawson on the Destruction, fyc. 



i 



Nearly all the animals above noticed, and many others, disap- 

 pear when the country becomes cultivated. There are, however, 

 other species which increase in numbers and at once adapt them- 

 selves to the new conditions introduced by man. The robin 

 (Tardus migrator ius) resorts to and derives its subsistence from 



the fields, and greatly multiplies, though much persecuted by 



sportsmen. The Fringilla nivalis, a summer bird in Nova Scotia 

 becomes very familiar, building in out-houses, and frequenting 

 barns in search of food. The song sparrow and Savannah 

 finch, swarm in the cultivated ground. The yellow bird (Sylvia 

 sestiva) becomes very familiar, often building in gardens. The 

 olden-winged woodpecker resorts to the cultivated fields, pick- 

 ing grubs and worms from the ground. The cliff-swallow ex- 



changes the faces of rocks for the eaves of barns and houses, 

 and the barn and chimney swallows are everywhere ready to 

 avail themselves of the accommodation afforded by buildings. 

 The acadian or little owl makes its abode in barns during winter. 

 The bob-lincoln, the king bird, the waxwing or cherry bird, and 

 the humming bird, are among the species which profit by the 

 progress of cultivation. The larger quadrupeds disappear, but 

 the fox and ermine still prowl about the cultivated grounds, and 

 the field-mouse (Arvicola Pennsylvanica) which is very abundant 

 in some parts of the woods, is equally so in the fields. Many 

 insects are vastly increased in numbers, in consequence of the 

 clearing of the forests. Of this kind are the grasshoppers and 

 locusts, which, in dry seasons, are very destructive to grass and 

 grain; the frog-spittle insects (Cercopis) of which several species 

 are found in the fields and gardens, and are very injurious to 

 vegetation ; and the lepidoptera, nearly the whole of which find 

 greater abundance of food and more favorable conditions in the 

 burned barrens and cultivated fields, than in the growing woods. 

 It may be remarked, in general, that there is no animal, frequent- 

 ing in Europe the cultivated grounds, and either beneficial or 

 noxious to man, which has not, in the indigenous species of 

 America, an exact representative, filling its place in the economy 

 of nature, and often, in a natural historical point of view, closely 

 related to it. This results from the general sameness of arrange- 

 ment in the system of nature in the old and new world ; and u 

 studied in its details, would form a subject of great interest to 



ist and nhvsical ffeos-ranhpr. 



