SAMOUELLE s 



them, and might be used on ship-board for the pur- 

 pose of destroying them. Mr. Neill, in the Maga- 

 zine of Natural History, in his account of the habits 

 of J acchus vulgaris, says, "By chance we observed 

 it devouring a large cockroach which it had caught, 

 running along the deck of the vessel ; and, from this 

 time to nearly the end of the voyage, a space of four 

 or five weeks, it fed almost exclusively on these in- 

 sects, and contributed most effectually to rid the 

 vessel of them. It frequently eat a score of the largest 

 kind, which are 2 or 24 inches long, and a very great 

 number of the smaller ones, three or four times in 

 the course of the day. It was quite amusing to see 

 it at its meal. When he had got hold of one of the 

 largest cockroaches, he held it in his fore paws, and 

 then invariably nipped the head off first ; he then 

 pulled out the viscera and cast them aside, and de- 

 voured the rest of the body, rejecting the dry elytra 

 and wings, and also the legs of the insect, which are 

 covered with short stiff bristles. The small cock- 

 roaches he eat without such fastidious nicety." 



