THE FT A'- CATCHERS. 



THE LANIUS SULl'lU'l; \T! S. 



The Second Fa^iily of the Dciifirostres is formed of the Fly-catchers. These birds 

 are generally of a wild and solitary character. Their physiognomy is sombre and 

 distrustful, and not without a certain expression of ferocity. As they are obliged 

 to seize on their prey in mid-air, thej' are almost always perched on the summit of 

 trees, and rarely alight on the ground. Chasers of flies, their true country must be in 

 the southern regions of the globe. Accoi'dingly, for three or four species known in 

 Europe, a great number are reckoned in the warm climates of Asia and Australia, and 

 still more in America. 



In this last continent we find the larger species, which hare been denominated tyrants. 

 As nature has increased the growth, and multiplied the insects of the New World, so are 

 they opposed by enemies still more numerous and po\s'erful. It rarely happens, indeed, 

 that any one species or genus is suffered to multiply and extend to the serious prejudice 

 of another. If we see everywhere a great destruction of life, an equi\alcnt reparation ia 

 also ai)parcnt. 



" AVithout the assistance of the insectivorous races of the feathered kingdom," Buffon 

 says, "vain would be the efforts of man to destroy or banish the clouds of flying insects 

 by which he would be assailed. Innumerable in tpiantity, and rapid in generation, they 

 would invade our dominions, fill the air, and devastate the earth, did not the birds restore 

 the crpiilibiium of living nature, by the destruction of the superfluous products. The 

 greatest incon\enicnce of warm climates is the continual torment caused there by the 

 insect tribes. Man and the quadrupeds cannot defend themselves against them. They 

 attack with their stings ; tliey oppose the jjrogross of cultivation, and devour the useful 

 productions of the earth. They infest with their excrements, or their eggs, all the pro- 

 visions which are necessary to be preserved. Thus we find that the beneficent birds are 

 not even sufficiently numeious in such clinuifcs, where, nevertheless, their species arc by 

 far the most multijjlied. How happens it, that in our temjjerate climates, wo are more 

 tormented with the flies in the commencement of uutuimi than in the middle of summer ? 

 Wliy, in tlie i'mo days of October, do wc sec the air filled witli myriads of gnats ? Because 



