LECTURE IX. 
101 
be particular in its description would be unneces- 
sary. In South America and the West Indies is a 
species much resembling it, but of a rather larger 
size, of a longer shape, and of a fine chesnut-co- 
lour : it is the B. Americana of Linna3us or Ame- 
rican Cockroach, and is excellently figured by the 
celebrated Madam Merian, in her splendid work 
on the insects of Surinam. But the most remark- 
able and destructive of all the Cockroaches is the 
B. gigantea, or Great Cockroach, found in many 
parts of the West Indies and America. It is 
often seen of nearly the diameter of an egg, and 
is of a brown colour. Like the rest of the tribe, 
it comes out chiefly by night, and devours almost 
every article of an animal nature, thus committing 
great devastation in domestic articles. It has also 
a most troublesome practice of making a kind of 
drumming noise behind wainscot or paper by 
night, so that only those who are very good sleep- 
ers can repose in rooms which are haunted by this 
insect. It is figured in the elegant work of the 
late Mr. Drury. 
But the ravages committed by the Blattse or 
Cockroaches are chiefly of a domestic nature, and 
fall infinitely short of those inflicted on mankind 
