III. Mofl of our fpecles of Picus, or Woodpecker, appear to me to be very ufeful In deilroying infeds, particularly 
thofe which injure our foreft and orchard-trees. It is true, thefe birds are fometimes injurious to us, by eating 
fome of our fineft fruits, particularly our cherries, and therefore pains are taken to expell them from our gardens. 
But they devour vafl numbers of infeds, particularly fome of thofe fpecies which prove fo deftrudive to the trunk 
of the trees, fuch as the coleopterous infeds, which, perhaps, do as much mifchief as the caterpillars. 
IV. As a devourer of pernicious infeds, one of the moft ufeful birds with which I am acquainted, is the 
Houfe-Wren, or Certhia familiaris ?* This little bird feems peculiarly fond of the fociety of man, and it mull be 
confelTed, that it is often proteded by his interefled care. From obferving the ufefulnefs of this bird in deftroying in^ 
feds, it has long been a cuftom, in many parts of our country, to fix a fmall box at the end of a long pole in 
gardens, about houfes, &c. as a place for it to build in. In thefe boxes they build and hatch their young. When 
the young are hatched, the parent birds feed them with a variety of different infeds, particularly fuch as are in¬ 
jurious in gardens. One of my iriendsf was at the trouble to obferve the number of times that a pair of thefe 
birds came from their box, and returned with infeds for their young. He found that they did this from forty to 
fixty times in an hour j and in one particular hour the birds carried food to their young, feventy-one times. In this 
bufinefs, they were engaged the greater part of the day ; fay twelve hours. Taking the medium, therefore, of fifty 
times an hour, it appeared that a fmgle pair of thefe birds took from the cabbage, fallad, beans, peas, and 
other vegetables in the garden, at leafl fix hundred infeds in the courfe of one day. This calculation proceeds 
upon the fuppofition, that the two birds took each only a fmgle infed each time. But it is highly probable they 
often took feveral at a time. 
The fpecies of Certhia of which I am fpeaking generally hatches twice during the courfe of the fummer. They 
are very numerous about Philadelphia, and in other parts of the United-States. 
The fad jufl related is well calculated to fhow the importance of attending to the prefervation of fome of our native 
birds. The efculent vegetables of a whole garden may, perhaps, be preferved from the depredations of differ¬ 
ent fpecies of infeds by ten or fifteen pair of thefe fmall birds: and independently of this effential fervice, they 
are an extremely agreeable companion to man : for their note is pleafmg. A gentleman, in the neighbourhood of 
Philadelphia, thinks he has already reaped much advantage from the fervices of thefe Wrens. About his fruit-trees, 
he has placed a number of boxes for their nefls. In thefe boxes, they very readily breed, and feed themfeivcs 
and their young with the infeds, which are fo deflrudive to the various kinds of fruit-trees, and other vegetables. 
V. The fervices 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 interefling fad in its hiftory, and in the hiflory of human fuperflitions. The 
Storks are, perhaps, not lefs ufeful. Pliny tells us, that thefe birds were fo much regarded for deftroying fer- 
pents, that in Theflaly, in his age, it was a capital crime to kill them, and that the.punifliment was the fame as 
that for murder. Virgil hints at the ufefulnefs of the ftork when he defcribes it as “ longis invifa colubris.” 
In Holland, even in our times, they go wild, proteded by the government, from a fenfe of their ufefulnefs in 
the way I have mentioned. 
In Britain, if it were not for the Herons, and fome other birds of this tribe, the frogs, the toads, and other rep¬ 
tiles, would increafe to fo great a degree, as to prove a real nuifance. North-America abounds with birds of 
this order; and we even have fome fpecies of Ibis, very nearly allied to the Ibis of Egypt, fuch as the Tantalus 
Loculator, or Wood-Pelecan;| the Tantalus ruber, or Scarlet Ibis,§ the Tantalus fufcus or Brown Ibis,|j and 
the Tantalus albus, or White Ibis.^ Mr. Bartram informs us, that the firft of thefe birds feeds “ on ferpents, young 
alligators, frogs, and other reptiles.”*"^ It is commonly feen “ near the banks of great rivers, in vaft marfhes 
or meadows, efpecially fuclnas are caufed by inundations, and alfo in the vaft defertcd Rice plantations.”tt This 
bird, both with regard to his general afped, and his manners and habits, may be confidered as the Ibis of Ame¬ 
rica. In the midft of all their fuperftitions, I do not find, however, that the native Americans have ever paid any par¬ 
ticular regard to this bird. I cannot learn that any of thefe fpecies of Tantalus have ever been feen in Pennfylvania. 
In the Tables, it is called Certhia familiaris (mlhi). -|- Mr. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, in Pennfylvania, f Wood Ibis of Pennant. 
f 
5 Red Curlew of Catefby. {] Brown Curlew of Cate(I’)y. % White Curlew pf Cateflry. ** Travels, P. 150. EU, 
