358 T'he Natural History of Selborne 



examination behind the larger boughs, we were surprised to 

 find that they were coated over with husky shells, from whose 

 side proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a multi- 

 tude of eggs. This curious and uncommon production put me 

 upon recollecting what I have heard and read concerning the 

 coccus vitis viniferce of Linnaeus, which, in the south of Europe, 

 infests many vines, and is an horrid and loathsome pest. As 

 soon as I had turned to the accounts given of this insect, I 

 saw at once that it swarmed on my vine ; and did not appear 

 to have been at all checked by the preceding winter, which 

 had been uncommonly severe. 



Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with 

 England, I was much inclined to think that it came from 

 Gibraltar among the many boxes and packages of plants and 

 birds which I had formerly received from thence ; and espe- 

 cially as the vine infested grew immediately under my study 

 window, where I usually kept my specimens. True it is that 

 I had received nothing from thence for some years : but as 

 insects, we know, are conveyed from one country to anothtr 

 in a very unexpected manner, and have a wonderful power of 

 maintaining their existence till they fall into a nidus proper 

 for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect still that 

 these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all 

 the while, candour obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot 

 has written me word that he once, and but once, saw these 

 insects on a vine at Wey mouth in Dorsetshire ; which, it is 

 here to be observed, is a sea-port town to which the coccus 

 might be conveyed by shipping. 



As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of 

 this strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a 

 passage from a natural history of Gibraltar, written by the 

 Reverend John White, late Vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, 

 but not yet published : 



" In the year 1770 a vine, which grew on the east side of 

 my house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes 

 for years past, was suddenly overspread on all the woody 

 branches with large lumps of a white fibrous substance resem- 



