INSECTA— COCHINEAL. 835 



yellow, with longitudinal red stripes. This beautiful insect is a native of 

 Surinam and many other parts of South America, and during the night 

 diffuses so strong a phosphoric splendor from its head or lantern, that it may be 

 employed for the purpose of a candle or torch ; and it is said that three or 

 four of these insects tied to the top of a stick, are frequently used by travel- 

 lers for that purpose. A single one gives light enough to enable a person to 

 read. 



THE COCHINEAL. 1 



This insect is of an oval form, of the size of a small pea, with six feet, 

 and a snout or trunk. It brings forth its young alive, and is nourished by 

 sucking the juice of the plant. Its body consists of several rings ; and 

 when it is once fixed on the plant, it continues immoveable, being subject to 

 no change. Some pretend there are two sorts, the one domestic, which is 

 best, and the other wild, that is, of a vivid color ; however, they appear to 

 be the same ; with only this difference, that the wild feed upon uncultivated 

 trees, without any assistance ; whereas, the domestic is carefully, at a stated 

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

 who take care of these insects, place them on the prickly pear-plant, in a 

 certain order, and are very industrious in defending thera from other insects ; 

 for if any other kind comes among them, they take care to brush them off 

 with foxes' tails. Towards 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 the cochineal that haye 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 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. 



When the native Americans have gathered the cochineal, they put thera 

 into holes in the ground, where they kill them with boiling water, and after- 

 wards 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 colors 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 boil- 



1 Coccus cacti, Lin. 



