ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 
269 
edifices are thronged with two hundred fold more inhabitants, 
and are proportionally far more numerous, than the small ones 
with which we are familiar. Breeding in vast numbers, and 
multiplying with great celerity and profusion, the increase of 
these insects would soon enable them to swarm over the greatest 
extent of country, were not their propagation and diffusion 
limited by the active exertions of that part of the animal cre- 
ation, which continually subsist by their destruction. 
The antcatchers run rapidly on the ground, alighting but 
seldom on trees, and then on the lowest branches ; they gener- 
ally associate in small flocks, feed exclusively on insects, and 
most commonly frequent the large ant-hills before mentioned. 
Several different species of these birds are often observed to 
live in perfect harmony on the same mound, which, as it sup- 
plies an abundance of food for all, removes one of the causes of 
discord which is most universally operative throughout anima- 
ted nature. On the same principle, we might explain the com- 
parative mildness of herbivorous animals, as well as the ferocity 
and solitary habits of carnivorous, and particularly of rapacious 
animals, which repulse all others from their society, and forbid 
even their own kind to approach the limits of their sanguinary 
domain. 
The antcatchers never soar high in the air, nor do they ex- 
tend their flight to any great distance without alighting to 
rest, in consequence of the shortness of their wings and tail, 
which, in fact, seem to be seldom employed for any other pur- 
pose than to assist them in running along the ground, or in 
leaping from branch to branch of bushes and low trees, — an 
exercise in which they display remarkable activity. Some 
species, like the woodpeckers, climb on the trunks of trees in 
pursuit of insects ; and it would appear, from their restless 
habits and almost constant motion, that their limited excursions 
are entirely attributable to the want of more ample provision 
for flight. The antcatchers are never found in settled districts, 
where their favourite insects are generally less abundant ; but 
