BIRDS 



dispersed through the rich and extensive territories 

 that are washed by these waters. Whether or not 

 this explanation be admitted, the fact is certainly as 

 I have stated ; and to the naturalist it cannot but ap- 

 pear interesting. Psittacus Jiertinax is one of the 

 birds of Brasil ; and the musicapa tyrannus^ which 

 is held in so much esteem by the Naudowessies, and- 

 other western Indian tribes, is a native of Surinam 5 

 and of the country bordering on the river Plata. 



As a devourer of pernicious insects, one of the 

 most useful birds is the house wren, or certhia fami- 

 liaris. 



This little bird seems peculiarly fond of the socie- 

 ty 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 insects, it 

 has long been a custom, in many parts of our coun- 

 try, to fix a small box at the end of a long pole in 

 gardens, about houses, &c. as a place for it to build 

 in. In these boxes they build, and hatch their young. 

 When the young are hatched, the parent birds feed 

 #em with a variety of different insects, particularly 

 «uch as are injurious in gardens. The number of 

 times that a pair of these birds come from their box, 

 and return with insects for their young, is about from 

 forty to sixty times in an hour : and in one particu- 

 lar hour, the birds have carried food to their young 

 seventy-one times. In this business they are engag- 

 ed 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, be^ns, peas, and other ve- 

 g^etables in the garden, at least six hundred ingects 



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