50 
CEDAR-BIRD. 
bird, also, as a degenerate and not a distinct species from their own ; 
yet they must allow that the change has been very great, very uniform, 
and universal, all over North America, where I have never heard that 
the European species has been found ; or even if it were, this would only 
show more clearly the specific difference of the two, by proving that 
climate or food could never have produced these differences in either, 
when both retain them, though confined to the same climate. 
But it is not only in the color of their plumage that these two birds 
differ, but in several important particulars, in their manners and habits. 
The breeding place of the European species is absolutely unknown.; 
supposed to be somewhere about the polar regions ; from whence, in 
winter, they make different and very irregular excursions to different 
parts of Europe ; seldom advancing farther south than the north of 
England, in lat. 54° N., and so irregularly, that many years sometimes 
elapse between their departure and reappearance ; which in more super- 
stitious ages has been supposed to portend some great national calamity. 
On the other hand, the American species inhabits the whole extensive 
range between Mexico and Canada, and perhaps much farther both 
northerly and southerly, building and rearing their young in all the 
intermediate regions, often in our gardens and orchards, within a few 
yards of our houses. 
In some parts of the country they are called Crown-birds ; in others 
Cherry-birds, from their fondness for that fruit. They also feed on 
ripe persimmons, small winter grapes, bird-cherries, and a great variety 
of other fruits and berries. The action of the stomach on these seeds 
and berries does not seem to. injure their vegetative powers ; but rather 
to promote them, by imbedding them in a calcareous case, and they are 
thus transported to and planted in various and distant parts by these 
little birds. In other respects, however, their usefulness to the farmer 
may be questioned ; and in the general chorus of the feathered songsters 
they can scarcely be said to take a part. We must therefore rank them 
far below many more homely and minute warblers, their neighbors, 
whom Providence seems to have formed, both as allies to protect the 
property of the husbandman from devouring insects, and as musicians 
to cheer him, while engaged in the labors of the field, with their innocent 
and delightful melody. 
