XXXll 
INTRODUCTION. 
the umbrageous, wild, and unpeopled banks of the Mississippi, 
and other of the larger rivers, no less than the vast pine-bar- 
rens of the Southern States, arc nearly without birds as perma- 
nent residents. In crossing the desolate piny glades of the 
South, with the exception of Creepers, Nuthatches, Wood- 
peckers, Pine Warblers, and flocks of flitting Larks {Sturnella), 
scarcely any birds are to be seen till we approach the mean- 
ders of some stream, or the precincts of a plantation. The 
food of birds being extremely various, they consequently con- 
gregate only where sustenance is to be obtained ; watery situa- 
tions and a diversified vegetation are necessary for their support, 
and convenient for their residence ; the fruits of the garden 
and orchard, the swarms of insects which follow the progress of 
agriculture, the grain which we cultivate, — in short, everything 
which contributes to our luxuries and wants, in the way of 
subsistence, no less than the recondite and tiny enemies which 
lessen or attack these various resources, all conduce to the 
support of the feathered race, which consequently seek out and 
frequent our settlements as humble and useful dependents. 
The most ingenious and labored nest of all the North Amer- 
ican birds is that of the Orchard Oriole, or Troopial. It is 
suspended, or pensile, like that of the Baltimore Bird, but, with 
the exception of hair, constantly constructed of native mate- 
rials, the principal of which is a kind of tough grass. The 
blades are formed into a sort of platted purse but little inferior 
to a coarse straw bonnet ; the artificial labor bestowed is so 
apparent that Wilson humorously adds, on his showing it to a 
matron of his acquaintance, betwixt joke and earnest, she 
asked “ if he thought it could not be taught to darn stock- 
ings.” Every one has heard of the Tailor Bird of India {Sylvia 
sutoriai) ; this little architect, by way of saving labor and gain- 
ing security for its tiny fabric, sometimes actually, as a seam- 
stress, sews together the edges of two leaves of a tree, in which 
her nest, at the extremity of the branch, is then secured for the 
period of incubation. Among the Sylvias, or Warblers, there 
is a species, inhabiting Florida and the West Indies, the 
Sylvia pensilis, which forms its woven, covered nest to rock in 
