ENEMIES, AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM. 99 



For one thing, there are several small beetles, and some 

 large ones, found in all our groves, that feed on the scale 

 or coccids, and as the latter are very minute and are often 

 seen to mount on the backs of their unconscious enemies, 

 they are thus carried by the beetles from tree to tree, and 

 also from grove to grove. 



Again, the shrike or butcher-bird dearly loves to select 

 the long, sharp thorns of the orange tree, on which to im- 

 pale his victims, insect, lizard, or small snake, as the case 

 may be. He prefers trees that have low branches, and 

 these are the very ones, as a rule, that are most thickly in- 

 fested by the scale insects, especially the long scale. 



In impaling his prey on the thorns the bird moves his 

 little claws freely over the branch, and some of the insects 

 clinging to it are sure to adhere to them ; then he flies off 

 to another tree or grove, and the scale is rubbed off and 

 finds a new field for its work. The butcher-bird also fre- 

 quently transfers his impaled victims from one tree to an- 

 other, and if the first has been infested with the scale and 

 the second has not, the latter can not much longer boast 

 of its freedom ; and even when the bird eats his prey from 

 the thorn on which it was first impaled, some of the scale 

 insects that are certain to adhere to it will cling to his 

 beak and probably be rubbed off on some other tree. 



We have a friendly feeling for the butcher-bird ; he is 

 such a neat, Quakerish-looking, fat, chubby little fellow, 

 and so familiarly saucy withal ; and we are sorry we can 

 not acquit him of helping to spread the enemies of our 

 groves, albeit he does it without malice prepense. 



High winds and spiders are also important and wide-spread 

 factors in the distribution of scale insects, all of which are 

 small and light; nursery stock and matured fruit itself 

 are also active agents in the matter. What is this much 

 talked of, much fought against scale insect, you ask? 



