92 
BIKD-LIFE. 
large birds are rarely found, and those of small ones 
scarcely ever. Even those which die from sickness 
rapidly disappear from their last resting-place; a whole 
army of grave-diggers take the little corpse under their 
care, hundreds of different beetles and other insects 
devour it; the grass soon covers its remains, mosses 
enclose the bleached skeleton; the feathers are scattered 
by the winds, the flesh has vanished, the bones are 
buried, and the leaves of the trees alone rustle and 
murmur long after the lovely being—which lived, loved, 
and died under their gloomy shade—has vanished from 
their midst. 
