114 The Book of Bugs. 



You will never find these four varieties dwelling to- 

 gether in amity in one house. Like the stanch old Tory 

 that he is, the cockroach is intolerant to the last degree. 

 If he cannot beat his kinsman in the battle to the death 

 he emigrates to another house, where he may hide in a 

 crack of the wall and mess up the woodwork according to 

 the dictates of his own conscience. He is second to none 

 in his advocacy of the strenuous life. Put into a bowl 

 with an opposition roach he furnishes as fine a gladia- 

 torial show as one could ask for, considering the price. 

 The victor does not bother himself with the gate-money. 

 At the conclusion of the entertainment he gathers up the 

 fragments of his adversary and eats them, that nothing 

 be left, thus tidying up the ring for the next event. This 

 manner of keeping the boys home evenings, by making 

 home an interesting place, is said to be very popular 

 among the Chinese. 



Being scavengers, cockroaches are omnivorous. They 

 will devour everything but the poisons set out for them. 

 Any dead animal matter, cereals, woolens, shoes, cloth 

 and leather bindings all are acceptable. But what they 

 chiefly dote upon is flour-paste. 'Oh!' exclaims the 

 blattidean epicure, throwing up both antennae in an 

 ecstasy of appreciation, " when I am dead, remember me 

 by flour-paste! 1 It is this that makes them such a trial 

 to librarians. The United States Treasury Department 

 had to 'have a whole set of reports entirely rebound on 

 account of them. Even the lettering had been nibbled 

 away, not because the cockroach is such an enthusiastic 

 gold-bug that it eats the metal, but the albumin that 

 sticks it on is extremely grateful to its palate. In Lap- 

 land they frequently bring on real destitution by devour- 

 ing and tainting the dried fish stored up for winter use. 

 Brazilian mothers, justly proud of the long and curving 



