206 INSECT TORHENTERS UNIVERSAL. 



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 betes, 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),* 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 



* JSicmus Pavonis. 



