SCALE-INSECTS. 7 



before them; moreover, most of them are out of date. The 

 student or the horticulturist desiring to know more about Coccids 

 not found in New Zealand may find full details in the reports 

 of the Agricultural Department of the United States Govern- 

 ment, in Dr. V. Signoret's " Essai sur les Cochenilles " (Paris), in 

 papers by Miss Emily Smith (American naturalist, 1878-80), 

 &c. The American Departmental Reports of Professors Riley 

 and Comstock, Mr. Hubbard, and Mr. L. Howard contain most 

 valuable information. English works on the subject, are mostly 

 fragmentary or inaccurate ; but Mr. Douglas, of Lewisham, has 

 lately begun to discuss the Coccids in England in a systematic 

 manner, and probably before long others will follow suit. In 

 India, Mr. T. "W. Atkinson, of Calcutta, is studying the family. 

 Natural science in these days tends ever more and more 

 towards specialization, and the boundaries of scientific classes, 

 orders, families, &c., are becoming always more and more 

 narrowed. The student can find his time quite sufficiently oc- 

 cupied nowadays in the thorough investigation of so (com- 

 paratively) small a portion of the animal kingdom as is presented 

 by the Coccids of even only one country ; and the present work 

 may not be without value to future workers in this direction. 

 To the farmer, the gardener, the fruit-grower, and the owner 

 of pleasure-grounds it is believed that the following chapters 

 will also supply information at the same time correct, intelligible, 

 and useful. 



