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III. Most of our species of Picas, or Woodpcckci-, apj)ear to uie to be very useful in dsitroying insects, particularly 

 those which injure our forest and orchard-trees. It is true, these birds are sometimes injurious to us, by eating 

 some of our finest fruits, particularly our cherries, and therefore pains are taken to expell them from our gardens. 

 But they devour vast numbers of insects, particularly some of those species which prove so destructive to tlie trunk 

 of the trees, such as the coleopterous insects, which, perhaps, do as much mischief as the caterpillars. 



IV. As a devourer of pernicious insects, one of the most u.seful birds with which I am acquainted, is the 

 House- Wren, or Certhia faniiliaris ? * This little bird seems peculiarly fond of the society of man, and it must be 

 confessed, that it is often protected by his interested care. From observing the usefulness of this bird in destroying in- 

 sects, it has long been a custom, in many juirts of nur country, to fix a small box at the end of a long pole in 

 gardens, about houses, &c. as a place for it t.i build in. In these boxes they build and hatch their young. When 

 the youug are hatched, the parent birds feed them -nith a variety of different insects, particularly such as are in- 

 jurious in gardens. One of my friends t was at the trouble to observe the number of times that a pair of these 

 birds came from their box, and returned with insects for their young. He found that they did this from forty to 

 -sixty times in an hour ; and in one particular hour the birds carried food to their young, seventy-one times. In this 

 business, they were engaged the greater part of the day ; say twelve hours. Taking the medium, therefore, of fifty 

 times an hour, it appeared that a single pair of these birds took from the cabbage, sallad, beans, peas, and 

 other vegetables in the garden, at least six hundred insects in the course of one day. This calculation proceeds 

 upon the supposition, that the two birds took each only a single insect each time. But it is highly probable they 

 often took several at a time. 



I'lie .species of Certhia of which I am speaking generally hatches twice during the course of the summer. They 

 are very numerous about Philadelphia, and in other parts of the United-States. 



The fact just related is well calculated to show the importance of attending to the preservation of some of our native 

 birds. The esculent vegetables of a whole garden may, perhaps, be preserved from the depredations of differ- 

 ent .species of insects by ten or fifteen pair of these small birds : and independently of this essential service, they 

 are an extremely agi-eeable companion to man : for their note is pleasing. A gentleman, in the neighbourhood of 

 Philadelphia, thinks he has already reaped much advantage from the services of these Wrens. About his fruit-trees, 

 he has placed a number of boxes for their nests. In these boxes, they very readily breed, and feed themselves 

 and their young with the insects, which are so destructive to the various kinds of fruit-trees, and other vegetables. 



V. The services of the Ibis in devouring the reptiles of Egypt are well known. They procured to this bird a venera- 

 tion and regard which form an interesting fact in its history, and in the history of human superstitions. The 

 Storks are, perhaps, not less useful. Pliny tells us, that these birds were so much regarded for destroying ser- 

 pents, that in Thessaly, in his age, it was a capital crime to kill them, and that the punishment was the same as 

 that for murder. Virgil hints at the usefulness of the stork when he describes it as "longis invisa colubris." 

 In Holland, even in our times, tliey go wild, protected by the government, from a sense of their usefulness in 

 the way I have mentioned. 



In Britain, if it were not for tlie Herons, and some otlier birds uf lliis lril)e, the frogs, the toads, and other rep- 

 tiles, would increase to so great a degr('e, as to prove a real nuisance. North-America abounds with birds of 

 tiiis order ; and we even have some species of Ibis, very nearly allied to the Ibis of Egypt, such as the Tantalus 

 Loculator, or Wood-Pelec.m ; J the Tantalus ruber, or Scarlet Ibis, § the Tantalus fuscus or Brown Ibis, || and 

 the Tantalus albus, or Wliite Ibis. % Mr. Bartram informs us, that the first of these birds feeds " on serpents, young 

 alligators, frogs, and other reptiles."** It is commonly seen "near the banks of great rivers, in vast marshes 

 or meadows, especially such as are caused by inundations, and also in the vast deserted Rice plantations." ft This 

 bird, both with regard to his general aspect, and his manners and habits, may be considered as the Ibis of Ame- 

 rica. In the midst of all their superstitions, I do not find, however, that the native Americans have ever paid any par- 

 ticular regard to this bu-d. I cannot learn that any of these species of Tantalus have ever been seen in Pennsylvania. 



• In the Tables, it is called Certhia familiaria (mihi). t Mr. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, in PennBylvania. J Wood Ibis of Pennant. 



J Eed Curlew of Catesby. || Brown Curlew of Cutesby. H White Curlew of Cate»by. «» Travels, &e. P. 150. U Itiid. 



