OOLOGIST'S EXCHANGE. 



OOLOGIST'S EXCHANGE. 



ARTHUR E. PETTIT, 



Chairman. 

 Published Monthly at 20 Cents per Tear. 



Terms of Advertising. 



Five lines |0.50 I One inch $1.00 



Half Column 3.50 Column 7.00 



Address all communications to Oologist's Ex- 

 change, P. O. Box 2060, New York City. 



Entered at the Post Office in New York as second 

 class matter. 



EDITORIAL. 



Kindly you note that we have re- 

 duced our advertising rates. A larger 

 circulation allows us to give more value 

 and charge less. 



Our esteemed friend E. B. Webster 

 has recovered his health. Glad of it ! ! 



Notes on migration, odd facts about 

 birds, and remarks on rare or quaint 

 Zoological publications are welcome in 

 our sanctum. 



A wild goose in Missouri being at- 

 tacked and hardly pressed by an eagle 

 sought the protection of two men 

 working near by and permitted itself 

 to be taken. Its wings were clipped by 

 them and it became a barn-yard 

 occupant. 



The Cochineal, a Useful Plant-Bug. 



While the Cocci, or plant-bugs, are 

 in our country deservedly detested as a 

 nuisance, destroying the beauty of many 

 of our garden plants by their blighting 

 presence ; while, in 1843, the Coccus of 

 the orange-trees proved so destructive 

 in the Azores that the Island of Fayal, 

 which annually exported 12,000 chests 

 of fruit, lost its entire produce from 

 this cause alone, two tropical members 

 of the family, as if to make up for the 

 misdeeds of their lelations, furnish us — 

 the one with the most splendid of all 

 scarlet dyes, and the other with gum- 

 lac, a substance of scarcely inferior 

 value. 



The gardener spares no trouble to 

 protect bis hot and greenhouse plants 

 from the invasion of the Coccus hesperi- 

 dum; but the Mexican haciendero pur- 

 posely lays out his Nopal plantations 



that they may be preyed upon by the 

 Coccus cacti, and rejoices when he sees 

 the leaves of his prickly pear thickly 

 strewn with this valuable parasite. 



The female, who, from her form and 

 habits, might not unaptly be called the 

 tortoise of the insect world, is much 

 larger than the winged male, and of a 

 dark brown color, with two light spots 

 on the back, covered with a white pow- 

 der. She uses her little legs only during 

 her first youth, but soon she sucks 

 herself fast, and henceforward remains 

 immovably attached to the spot she has 

 chosen, while her mate continues to 

 lead a wandering life. While thus fixed 

 like an oyster, she swells or grows to 

 such a size that she looks more like a 

 seed or berry than an insect ; and her 

 legs, antennae and proboscis, concealed 

 by the expanding body, can scarcely be 

 distinguished by the naked eye. 



Great care is taken to kill the insects 

 before the young escape from the eggs, 

 as they have then the greatest weight, 

 and are most impregnated with coloring 

 matter. They are detached by a blunt 

 knife dipped in boiling water to kill 

 them, and then dried in the sun, when 

 they have the appearance of small, dry, 

 shriveled berries, of a deep brown, 

 purple or mulberry color, with a white 

 matter between the wrinkles. The col- 

 lecting takes place three times a year in 

 the plantations, where the insect, im- 

 proved by human care, is nearly twice 

 as large as the wild coccus, which in 

 Mexico is gathered six times in the 

 same period. 



Although the collecting of the cochi- 

 neal is exceedingly tedious — about 

 70,000 insects going to a single pound — 

 yet, considering the high price of the 

 article, its rearing would be very lucra- 

 tive, if both the insect and the plant it 

 feeds upon were not liable to the ravages 

 of many diseases, and the attacks of 

 numerous enemies. 



_ To those of our readers who would 

 like to have an opportunity of observing 

 this interesting insect, we will mail an 

 ounce of these bugs for seven cents 

 post paid. After you have grown tired 

 of observing and studying them, you 

 can reduce them to powder by pounding 

 in a mortar, and use them for dyeing. 



The insect in its natural state will 

 give a rich maroon color. If you are 

 interested in chemistry you can extract 

 the unusually high priced product 

 known under the name of Carmine. 



