Alt Account of the InJi'mB of the Nine-Killet: 70 



following circumilances, if our relations are to be trufted. The megatherium Is not of the 

 cat form, as are the lion, tyger, and panther, but is faid to have ftriking relations in all 

 parts of its tody with the bradypus, dafypus, pangolin, &c. According to analogy then, 

 it probably, was not carnlvoroua, had not the phofphoric eye, nor leonine roar. But to 

 folve fatIsfa£torily the queftion of identity, the difcovery of fore-teeth, or of a jaw bone 

 {hewing It had, or had not, fuch teeth, muft be waited for, and hoped with patience. It 

 may be better, in the mean time, to keep up the difference of name. 



IV. 



A Letter from Mr. John Heckewelder, to Dr. Bartos, giving fame account of the 

 remarkable InftinS of a Bird called the Nine-Killer*. 



Bethlehem, December i8th, 1795. 



H. 



. AVING an opportunity by a friend of mine to Philadelphia, I muft mention to you a 

 curious fa£l, that came to my knowledge but yefterday. 



I went to a farm, about eleven miles and a half from this place, to view a young orchard, 

 which had been planted, about five weeks ago, under my direflion, where on viewing the 

 trees, I found, to my great aftonlfhment, almoft on every one of them, one and on fome 

 two and three grafshoppers, ftuck down on the fharp thorny branches, which were not 

 pruned when the trees were planted. I immediately called the tenant, and afljed the reafon 

 and his opinion of this. He was much furprlfed at my ignorance about the matter, and 

 informed me, *' that thefe grafshoppers were ftuck up by a fmall bird of prey, which the 

 Germans called Nettn-toedter (in Englifli, Nine-killer) ; that this bird had a pra£l:Ice of 

 catching and ftlcklng up nine grafshoppers a day, and that as he well knew they did not 

 devour the grafshoppers, nor any other infeds, he thought they muft do it for pleafure. 

 I aflced him for a defcrlption of this bird, and was perfeftly fatisfied that it lived entirely 

 on fmall animals, fuch as fmall birds, mice, &c. for I had paid attention to this bird as 

 early as the year 1761, when, in the winter, one of the fame fpecies took a favourite little 

 bird out of my cage at the window, from which time I have watched them more clofely, 

 and have found them more numerous In the weftern-country than here. Not being fatis- 

 fied with what the tenant had told me refpcfting the Intention of the bird's doing all this 

 (viz. for diverfion fake), and particularly obferving each and every one of thefe grafs- 

 hoppers ftuck up fo regularly, and In their natural pofition as when on the ground, not 

 one of them having Its back downwards, I began to conjefture what might be the real in- 

 tention which the bird had In this, and my determined opinion was, that this little blrd- 



* Addreffed to Dr. Benj. Smith Barton, and inferted in the Tranfaftions of the American Philof. 

 Society, IV. 124: 



Vol. IV.— May 1800. L hawk, 



