30 JANUARY. 



abundant. Being amphibious, and well pro- 

 vided with wings, they can, when their store of 

 food is exhausted, fly from one pool to another, 

 thus avoiding death, either from starvation, 

 or the drying up of the water in summer. 

 Equipped with wings, and having a voracious 

 appetite, they tend materially to keep in check 

 a myriad of noxious insects, and to purify our 

 ditches and stagnant pools, which would other- 

 wise become unfit for cattle. 



