HARVEST-FLIES. 203 



and other noxious insects may fairly be attributed to the 

 exterminating war which has wantonly been waged upon 

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

 crease unless these little friends of the farmer are protected, 

 or left undisturbed to multiply, and follow their natural 

 habits. Meanwhile, some advantage may be derived from 

 encourao'ino; 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 destruction of insects. 



II. II A R V E S T - F L I E S , &c. ( Ilcmiptera Homoptera. ) 



By many entomologists this division is raised to the rank 

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

 the insects arranged in it are, as already stated, much more 

 like the true IIemiptera, or bugs, than they, are to the in- 

 sects in any other order, which shows the propriety of keeping 

 these two divisions together, and that separately they hold 

 only a subordinate importance compared Avith other orders. 



The insects belonging to this division are divided by nat- 

 uralists into three large groups, or tribes. 



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

 antennae, which are awl-shaped or tipped with a little bris- 

 tle ; 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 haA^e a piercer, lodged in 

 a furrow beneath the extremity of the body. 



2. Plant-lice (Aphidid^) ; having antenna? longer than 

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

 end ; Aving-covers and wings frequently wanting in the 

 females ; feet tAvo-jointed ; the body A-ery soft, generally fur- 

 nished Avitli two Httle tubercles at the end ; no piercer in the 

 females. 



