THE BEETLE. 391 



to cultivated trees, where it feeds upon a purer juice. Those 

 who lake care of these insects, place them on the prickly pear- 

 plant in a certain order, and are very industrious in defending 

 them from other insects ; for if any other kind come among 

 them, they take care to brush them off with foxes' tails. To- 

 wards the end of the year, when the rains and cold weather are 

 coming on, which are fatal to these insects, they take off the 

 leaves or branches covered with cochineal, that have not attained 

 their utmost degree of perfection, and keep them in their houses 

 till winter is past. These leaves are very thick and juicy, and 

 supply them with sufficient nourishment, while they remain 

 within doors. When the milder weather returns, and these 

 animals are about to exclude their young, the natives make them 

 nests, like those of birds, but less, of tree moss, or soft hay, or 

 the down of cocoa-nuts, placing twelve in every nest. These 

 they fix on the thorns of the prickly-pear plant, and in three or 

 four days' time they bring forth their young, which leave their 

 nests in a few days, and creep upon the branches of the plant, 

 till they find a proper place to rest in, and take in their nourish- 

 ment ; and until the females are fecundated by the males, which, 

 as in the former tribe, differ very widely from the females, be- 

 ing winged insects, whereas the others only creep, and are at 

 most stationary. When they are impregnated, they produce a 

 new offspring, so that the propagator has a new harvest thrice a- 

 year. When the native Americans have gathered the cochineal, 

 they put them into holes in the ground, where they kill them 

 with boiling water, and afterwards dry them in the sun, or in an 

 oven, or lay them upon hot plates. From the various methods 

 of killing them, arise the different colours which they appear in 

 when brought to us. While they are living they seem to be 

 sprinkled over with a white powder, which they lose as soon as 

 the boiling water is poured upon them. Those that are dried 

 upon hot plates are the blackest. What we call the cochineal 

 are only the females, for the males are a sort of fly, as already 

 observed in the kermes. They are used both for dying and 

 medicine, and are said to have much the same virtue as the ker- 

 mes, though they are now seldom used alone, but are mixed 

 with other things for the sake of the colour.* 



♦ To the bePtle kind also belong those animals which cause such alarm to 

 the superstitious by their ticking noise, which is vulgarly called the death, 

 ivatch Various species of this insect are to be found in Britain. 



