COCK OF THE WOODS 



COCOA 



323 



predominantly orange-red in colour, with a lark 

 purple-red crest, and decidedly larp-r than the 

 sober brown female. It is about the si/e of a 

 c< million pigeon. 



Cock of the Woods. See CAPERCAILZIE. 



Cockpit* in a ship of war, is the name still 

 ^i\i-n to the compartment in the lower part of the 

 shin where the woundeil are attended to during 

 action. The surgery and dispensary which contains 

 the medicine chests for the ship's company adjoin 

 the cockpit. 



Cockroach (Blatta or Perinlaneta), a large 

 genus of insects, type of a family (Blattid;r) 

 within tin- important order Orthoptera, which 

 likewise includes locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, 

 leaf-insects, earwigs, &c. Though often spoken 

 of as beetles, cockroaches have in no sense direct 

 connection with that order. Familiar enough 

 as pests, cockroaches require no minute descrip- 

 tion. The antenna? longer than the body 

 i.e. over an inch, the bent down head (half- 

 hidden by the large first thoracic plate), the long 

 spiny legs compressed terminally, the flat broad 

 segmented abdomen, the cigar-shaped anal append- 

 ages (which are supposed by some to represent 

 a pair of rudimentary abdominal legs), are among 

 the more striking external features. The two 

 adult sexes in the common cockroach are readily 

 distinguished, since the female has a somewhat 

 broader abdomen, and only slight traces of wings. 

 In the male, the anterior wings form stiff opaque 

 wing-covers (tegnlina), while the posterior pair are 

 membraneous, really wing-like, and folded longi- 

 tudinally ; in the female, the tegmina are very 

 small, and the posterior wings only suggested by 

 marks. Certain cockroaches, however, are wing- 

 less in both sexes. There are complex copulatory 

 and egg-laying structures in the respective sexes. 



Common Cockroach : 

 a, female ; '*, male. 



The essential male organs atrophy in the adult 

 males. The eggs are surrounded by a peculiar 

 hard capsule, winch the female carries about for a 

 long time, but eventually attaches by a glutinous 

 secretion to some suitable sheltering object. This 

 cocoon, in the common species, usually contains 

 sixteen eggs, one from each of the ovarian tubes. 

 Like other true Orthoptera, the cockroaches have 

 no marked metamorphosis in their life-history. 

 The larva>, when developed, appear to soften the 

 cd^'s of a side slit in the inclosing capsule, and 

 emerge through this into active Hie. They pass 

 through no fasting quiescent state, and when 

 hatched, differ from the adults only in minor 

 quantitative details. They are said to moult seven 

 times before becoming quite adult in the fifth year 

 of their life. 



Cockroaches are voracious insects, devouring both 

 animal and vegetable substances, which they seek 

 out by aid of their almost certainly olfactory 



antenna?. Their mouth organs (three pairs of 

 jaws) are very typical, and well adapted for biting. 

 The juices of the mouth leave a diHgtiHting Hinell 

 on the objects over which the in-i-cts \nuw. They 

 are nocturnal in habit, most abundant in warm 

 count i-irs. fond of sheltering in houses, and notori- 

 ously a pest to bakers and millers. To get rid of 

 them a tame hedgehog is often employed, or they 

 may be caught in large numbers in a slippery milk 

 basin, baited with treacle, and led up to ny a piece 

 of wood which cannot \te regained from the bottom. 

 The commonest species in Britain (Periplaneta 

 orientalis) is said to have been brought to urope 

 from Asia within the last two hundred years; 

 P. americana has found its way hither in bales, 

 &c. from America. The German cockroach ( Blatta 

 or Phyllodromia germanica) is a troublesome, 

 widely distributed form, which appears, however, to 

 go to the wall before our common pest. Another 

 form (Blatta or Ectobia lapponica) of smaller size, 

 which occurs commonly in the woods of north and 

 central Europe, is specially important in Lapland, 

 where it sometimes does great injury by devouring 

 the winter stores of salted fish. The largest form 

 known is a native of South America and the West 

 Indies, which measures about 3 inches in length, 

 and makes a loud drumming noise. The cock- 

 roach is an ancient insect, having been actually 

 found in Silurian strata. As a tolerably evolved, 

 and yet not too highly specialised type, the cock- 

 roach forms a very convenient type for the anatom- 

 ical study of insects. See Miall and Denny, The 

 Cockroach : an Introduction to Entomology ( 1886). 



Cockscomb ( Celosia cristata ), an East- Indian 

 annual of the order Ainarantaceje, familiar in con- 

 servatories, often also planted out in warm borders, 

 especially in the southern parts of Britain. It 

 grows with an upright stem, which becomes 

 flattened upwards, divides, expands, and forms 

 a sort of wavy crest, covered with pointed bracts, 

 and bearing on its surface many very small abortive 

 flowers, so crowded as often to present a rich 

 velvety appearance. The colours are various, and 

 often very brilliant. In the wild species, however, 

 the flowers are of ordinary type, and in simple 

 spikes and panicles ; while in the so-called C. aurea, 

 a golden variety formerly much cultivated, only a 

 few flowers of the base of the inflorescence are per- 

 fect, the other being represented only by bracts 

 and scales ; while in trie cockscomb proper the 

 monstrosity known as Fasciation (q.v.) has further 

 taken place. 



Cock's-foot Grass (Dactylis), a genus of 

 Grasses, closely allied to Fescue (Festuca), but 

 differing in habit. The Common or Rough Cock's- 

 foot Grass ( D. glomerata ) is a native of both palse- 

 arctic and nearctic regions, and is very abundant 

 in Britain. It furnishes an important part of both 

 natural and artificial pastures. In America this 

 grass is called Orchara Grass, and is extensively 

 cultivated. To this genus belongs also the Tussac 

 Grass (q.v.). See PASTURE, GRASSES. 



Cockton, HENRY, comic novelist, was bora 

 in London in 1807, and died 26th June 1853 at 

 Bury St Edmunds, where eleven years earlier he 

 had married and settled in business. Unless for 

 their illustrations, all of his tn works are almost 

 forgotten but one Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist 

 (1840). 



Cocoa* Cacao, or COCO. The different kinds 

 of cocoa are prepared from the seeds of trees of the 

 genus Theobroma. 



The genus Theobroma (Gr., 'food of the gods') 

 belongs to the natural order Byttneriace.-v (q.v.), 

 and contains a number of species, trees of moderate 

 size, with large undivided leaves and clustered 

 flowers, all natives of the tropical parts of America. 



