IIEMIPTERA. 177 



exterminating war which has wantonly been waged upon our 

 insect-eating birds, and we may expect the evil to increase 

 unless these little friends of the farmer are protected, or left 

 undisturbed to multiply, and follow their natural habits. Mean- 

 while, some advantage may be derived from encouraging the 

 breed of our domestic fowls. A flock of young chickens or 

 turkeys, if suffered to go at large in a garden, while the mother 

 is confined within their sight and hearing, under a suitable 

 crate or cage, will devour great numbers of destructive insects; 

 and our farmers should be urged to pay more attention than 

 heretofore to the rearing of chickens, young turkeys, and 

 ducks, with a view to the benefits to be derived from their de- 

 struction of insects. 



II. HARVEST-FLIES, &c. {Ilemiptera Ilomoptera.) 



By many entomologists this division is raised to the rank of 

 a separate order, under the name of Homoptera; but the in- 

 sects arranged in it are, as already stated, much more like the 

 true Hemiptera, or bugs, than they are to the insects in any 

 other order, which shows the propriety of keeping these two 

 divisions together, and that separately they hold only a subor- 

 dinate importance compared with other orders. 



The insects belonging to this division are divided by natu- 

 ralists into three large groups, or tribes. 



1. Harvest-flies, or Cicadians (Cicadad.e); having short 

 antenna?, which are awl-shaped or tipped with a little bristle ; 

 wings and wing-covers, in both sexes, inclined at the sides of 

 the body; three joints to their feet; firm and hard skins; and 

 in which the females have a piercer, lodged in a furrow beneath 

 the extremity of the body. 



2. Plant-lice (Aphidid.e); having antennas longer than the 

 head, and threadlike or tapering from the root to the end; 

 wing-covers and wings frequently wanting in the females; 

 feet two-jointed; the body very soft, generally furnished with 

 two little tubercles at the end; no piercer in the females. 



3. Bark-lice (Coccid^e); having threadlike or tapering an- 

 tennae, longer than the head; the males alone provided with 

 wings, which lie horizontally on the top of the back ; no beak 



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