OF BIRDS. 
*97 
bers, bat little frequented, if the windows be left 
open. 
In mountainous countries, where the chimnics 
are clofed above in the fummer, on account of 
the heavy fnows, they build .under the eaves, ft id 
conflant in their attachment to the neighbourhood 
of man. A bewildered traveller when he fees one 
of thefe birds, may confider it as a bird of good 
ornen, prefaging that fome habitation is near. 
They generally appear about the beginning or 
middle of April. Their vifit is not haftened by 
premature warm weather, in February or Ma'rcn ; 
or retarded by levere cold in April. In 174°? 
great numbers died in France : the feverity of the 
cold had deprived them of their infeCt food ; their 
bodies were emaciated, and fome were obferved 
to fix themfeives to the wall, and feize the dried 
infects that remained in the fpiders webs. 
Birds fo innocent, and ufeful, have every claim 
to our protection : they deliver us from thofe 
fwarms of infects which would otherwife infeffc 
our houfes, injure our gardens, our trees, and, 
perhaps, our harvefts. The leaft return we ought 
to make, and, indeed, the only one they require, 
is, to let them live fecure. Yet, we fee, that 
many, infenfible to the advantages we receive 
from them, indulge themfeives in the inhuman, 
I 3 and 
