16 LAND BIRDS. 



on an average, forty caterpillars every hour during 

 the day. This would make nearly five hundred of 

 these insects in twelve hours, and more than three 

 thousand during a week. Ten pair would therefore 

 destroy more than thirty thousand caterpillars per 

 week, a number perhaps sufficient, to ruin all the 

 expectations of an honest gardener, and reduce his 

 family to want. 



LAND BIRDS* 



DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



Birds belonging to this tribe, have neither hooked 

 bills for tearing, like the eagles; nor sharp ones for 

 striking, like the cranes ; but they have short thick bills 

 for picking up grain, which is their principal food. 

 Some of them have strong nails for scratching in the 

 dirt, in search of insects, worms, and gravel. They 

 build their nests on the ground, and as the brood leave 

 them as soon as hatched, little care is taken in con- 

 structing them. To this tribe belong the Cock and 

 Hen, Peacock, Guinea Hen, and many others. 



COCK AND HEtf. 



These birds are so universally known, that to de- 

 scribe them would be only a waste of time. 



The Cock has been long a domestic bird, and it is 



