04 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
Gulf, where the greater number pass the winter. To- 
wards the commencement of May, when the insect 
world has just assumed life or activity, innumerable 
flocks of warblers (Sylvicola Sw.), flycatchers (Tyran- 
nula Sw.), woodpeckers (Picus L.), maizebirds (Age- 
laius V.), thrushes (Merula, Orpheus Sw.), hangnests 
(Icterus D.), and other families, make their first ap- 
pearance in the United States, enlivening the forests by 
their varied plumage, and delighting man by their me- 
lodious song. The arrival of these strangers occasions 
a prodigious increase in the number of the feathered 
inhabitants ; yet Providence has ordained that a pro- 
portionate supply of food should be provided for all. 
; These birds generally feed 
upon insects: while for the 
pigeons, biue-birds, the red- 
headed, Carolina, and golden- 
shafted woodpeckers (fig. 21.), 
and such others as partake also 
of fruits and grain, the seasons, 
in due course, provide an ample 
repast of wild berries, the fruits 
of the orchard, or the corn of 
the field. When the process 
of incubation is finished, and 
the young fully fledged, autumn is at hand ; the insect 
world dies, or retires into concealment ; the fruits of 
the earth fall to decay, or are gathered by the husband- 
man. ‘Then it is that the parents and their offspring 
are taught to seek their own food in cther climates: 
they accordingly depart ; and, either congregating into 
flocks or journeying singly, return once more to the 
genial and ever verdant forests of the Western Indies. 
Many of these have been traced to the islands, and many 
to the adjacent coast of Mexico ; but scarcely more than 
two or three species have yet been detected on the terra 
firma of equinoctial America. 
(91.) The gallinacee, or birds of game, are re- 
markably few. Two species of grouse occur on the 
