. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Birds; Oiseaux. 11, !.,!- 164 IVORY-BILLHD m .: i ances, and niurli of vulgar piojudic-e against him, it may fairly be ques- tioned whether ho is at all injurious; or, at least, whether his exertions do not contribute most jiowerfully to the protection of our timber. Examine closely the tree where lie lias been at work, and you will soon perceive, that it is neither fr-im motives of mischief nor amusement that he slices off the
. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813; Birds; Oiseaux. 11, !.,!- 164 IVORY-BILLHD m .: i ances, and niurli of vulgar piojudic-e against him, it may fairly be ques- tioned whether ho is at all injurious; or, at least, whether his exertions do not contribute most jiowerfully to the protection of our timber. Examine closely the tree where lie lias been at work, and you will soon perceive, that it is neither fr-im motives of mischief nor amusement that he slices off the bark, or digs his way into the trunk. For the sound and healthy tree is not in the least the object of his attention. The diseaHeil, infested with insects, and hastening to putrefaction, are his favorites: there the deadly crawling enemy have formed a lodgment, between the bark and tender wood, to dnnl. up the very vital part of â the tree, it is the ravages of these vermm which the intelligent pro- prietor of the forest dejdores, as the sole perpetrators of the destruction of his timber. Would it be believed that the larvai of an insect, or lly, no larger than a grain of rice, shouhl silently, and in one season, destroy some thousand acres of pine trees, many of them from two to three feet in diameter, and a hundred and fifty feet high ! Yet whoever passes along the high road from Georgetown to Charleston, in South Carolina, about twentv miles from the former place, can have striking and melan- cholv proofs of this fact. In some places the whole woods, as far as you can see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry- lookinir arms an<l bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling ii, ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful pictune of desolation. And yet ignorance an<l prejudice stubbornly persist in directing their indignation against the bird now before us, the con*ts of Europe, I fiti'l it asserted, that it inhabits from New Jersey to Mexico.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectois
