86 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
Their color very nearly resembles that of the branches upon ~ 
which they alight, usually a brown or black, but sometimes 
a reddish or violet, and hence they scarcely ever attract at- 
tention unless looked for. The branches of peach-trees are 
their particular resort, and may often be seen covered with 
them, making the branches look rough and knotty, and the 
leaves and fruit dirty and black from the rain washing upon 
them from the bodies of these filthy Shield-lice. 
The Cochineal (Coccus cacti). 
My readers, I presume, will find it an agreeable transi- 
tion to pass from an insect whose only distinguishing qual- 
ity seems to be its noxiousness, to one justly celebrated for 
its utility—to one abounding in interest and curiosity—to 
one to which they are indebted for the most beautiful of the 
colors which adorn their persons and “ beautify the human - 
form divine.” 
It is a wonderful thing to look abroad over the face of 
Nature, and see how every mineral, vegetable, and animal 
production is constituted so as to minister in some way to 
the wants of man—to see the vegetable world silently en- 
gaged in extracting mineral matters from the soil, and stor- 
ing them up for man, and man, impelled by instinct, se- 
lecting these as his own proper food—to behold not only 
his food and drink flowing constantly to him through the 
ever-revolvying cycle of three kingdoms, but even his most - 
valued ornaments presented through the same natural chan- 
nel! It is more than wonderful, it is sublime, to view 
atom after atom of the whole creation unceasingly changing 
place, that man, the lord of creation, may be abundantly 
supplied with all his comforts and his luxuries; to see the 
lilies of the field, and the insects of the earth and air, living 
and dying for man, yielding up their lives for man’s suste- 
nance and adornment. ‘True, ‘the lilies of the field take 
no thought for the morrow,” but the unseen finger that 
