358 INSECT TORMENTORS UNIVERSAL. 



times brought to a deplorable condition. These are mites, or 

 Acari, attached especially to bees and beetles ; but butterflies, 

 crickets, ants, and even the formidable dragon-fly, are all 

 subject to the attacks of allied ^species, independent of other 

 life-consuming enemies. 



Those little maudites Mtes, termed, facetiously, by a popular 

 author, " game from the capital pastures," find a favourite 

 cover and preserve amongst the feathers of the bird creation, 

 which, in its numerous varieties, is a prey to insect infestors of 

 this description almost as varied. 



The peacock, strutting in his gorgeous panoply of plumes, 

 has, in common with others who are fretting daily under 

 " splendid misery," a " thorn in the flesh," such as the most 

 of his admirers little reck of, in the shape of a tormentor 

 peculiar to himself (the peacock louse 1 ), peculiar also for its 

 own very remarkable exterior. 



Poll Parrot or Mistress Cockatoo, when bending her head 

 to invite our caressing fingers, has, ten to one, a less refined 

 motive in the act than a mere love of notice. Even our little 

 pet canary cannot always boast exemption from the " rufflers " 

 of his race. He is sometimes seen to pluck and plume inor- 

 dinately, without the usual incentive of a change of feathers. 

 Now we must not attribute this to mere vanity, nor suppose 

 that he is only smoothing his yellow satin doublet for some 

 imaginary " at home," since it is quite as probable that certain 

 unwelcome visitors, in the form of little red mites, are making 

 themselves " at home " in reality under the unwilling shelter 

 of his wing. This, however, with a real pet bird one, that 

 is to say, kept with cleanliness is a rare if not unknown 

 occurrence, for the above tormentor of imprisoned warblers 

 is chiefly found in dirty or neglected cages. On this account 

 it needs especial care never to introduce a feathered favourite 

 into an abode which has been pre-occupied, without subjecting 

 it, first, to proper ablution and fumigation. 



1 Ricinus Favonis, 



