THE FAUNA OF THE PRAIRIES. 9 
of bricks and mortar, ee rarely afford them convenient 
nesting places. 
In traversing a new country, one is often struck with the differ- 
ences in the habits that many of the birds present, from those 
familiar to him as characteristic of the same species in long settled 
districts. The unsuspiciousness of the blue jay and the crow at 
the West, teaches us that the distrustfulness of man, exhibited by 
these birds at the East, is an acquired trait, while one is surprised 
to see the meadow lark, so wild and cautious in the older states, 
singing with the utmost confidence from the roofs of the houses in 
the enfbryo villages on the newly settled prairies. 
In regard to the changes in the numerical proportions of the 
species of the lower classes of animals, especially of the insects, 
space would fail, even if they were known, as unfortunately to a 
great extent they are not, to fully detail the disturbances that fol- 
low man’s occupation of the country. e destructive influence 
of the swine upon certain species, when these animals are allowed 
to run at large, is, in some cases, too patent to be passed over 
unnoticed, even in the present cursory sketch. The grasshoppers, 
during their times of periodic abundance, afford them, by no 
means unsavory meals; but their fondness for the river mussels 
(Unionide) is excessive. These they systematically hunt in the 
shallower parts of the rivers, especially in dry seasons, till for 
miles, in some cases, they seem to have thoroughly exterminated 
them ; and they also search for the craw-fishes, which everywhere 
abound in the marshes, with similar: >tidity, and must soon greatly 
diminish their numbers. It may be remarked, in conclusion, that 
the fauna of the prairies is not of sovhigh a type as that of the 
adjoining, more diversified, wooded districts situated under the 
same parallels. There are fewer carnivora and more rodents, the 
preponderance of the latter being greater than at the eastward. 
In other classes, especially among insects, the lower groups, as 
compared with the higher, are there both relatively and absolutely 
more numerously represented. In short, as in the flora,.so also 
in the fauna, there is a simplicity and uniformity that gives to 
both a comparatively low and uniform character. 
