48 T H E P I E K I N D. 



feer, and iron bills (as the Sicilians call them), they make fix feet deep 

 in foft ground. About the fize of a thrufh. The kinds arc numerous. 



THE FLY- CATCHERS 



ARE among the moft ufeful birds of prey; for fuch they truly are, 

 /■^ as they live only on infeds. This kind is extremely numerous in 

 ipecies and varieties. The larger are equal in fize to the butcher-bird, 

 the fmalleft to the black-bird. They have a flirong bill, almofl: triangu- 

 lar (furrounded with whijkers)^ and little hooked, in fome kinds, at the 

 end J in the larger kinds confidcrably bent j tail long. Wild and foli- 

 taryj they inhabit great trees; rarely defcend to the ground. The cli- 

 mates of the fouth, where the infefts abound, are their true countries. 

 Only two kinds known in Europe; but in Africa we count eight, and ia 

 America thirty ; where alfo are the larger kinds. 



The European fly-catcher is under fix inches long, plumage grey, 

 ■white, and deepifli afli-colour ; comes in' April, goes away in Septem- 

 ber. Lives in woods ; wild and ftupid ; build their nefts expofed. In 

 America fome of the kinds are but the fize of a wren; others are power- 

 ful birds. 



Without the afiiftance of thefe birds, diminutive as fome may feem, 

 every endeavour would be vain to overcome and drive away the clouds 

 of flying infefts which are a perpetual annoyance ; they are too numerous 

 to be deltroyed ; are conftantlyfl;ingingmen and cattle, devour the produc- 

 tions of the grouad ; infed, by their excrements or their eggs, all pro- 

 vifions, &c. intended for {lores ; no candle can be lighted, but their 

 numbers extinguilh it; no fleep can be obtained without the utmoft care 

 to exclude them, which often- is infufiicient. ^ To thefe birds, therefore, 

 we are under great obligations ; and nature has encreafed the devourers, 

 where fiie has multiplied their prey. 



THE ANT-EATERS 



FO R M a remarkable clafs of birds : they abound in the humid 

 and low countries of South America, where infers and reptiles, 

 by their numbers, tyrannize over all other fpecies of creatures. 



In Guyana and Brafil, the ant-hills are the fize of hay-ftacks, and at 



leaft 



