162 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



wear them out that they either die or are obliged to be 

 killed \ 



Some of the most esteemed dainties of our tables are 

 supplied from such of the winged part of the creation as 

 we have domesticated. These also have a louse (Nir- 

 mus, Herm.) appropriated to them, and the gorgeous pea- 

 cock is infested by one of extraordinary dimensions and 

 singular form b . Pigeons, in addition, often swarm with 

 the bed-bug, which makes it advisable never to have 

 their lockers fixed to a dwelling-house. In their young, 

 if your curiosity urges you to examine them, you may 

 find the larva of the flea, which in its perfect state often 

 swarms in poultry. 



Amongst our most valuable domestic animals I shall 

 be very unjust and ungrateful, if I do not enumerate 

 those industrious little creatures the bees, from whose 

 incessant labours and heaven-taught art we derive the 

 two precious productions of honey and wax. They also 

 are infested by numerous insect-enemies, some of which 

 attack the bees themselves, while others despoil them of 

 their treasures. — They have parasites of a peculiar ge- 

 nus, although at present regarded as belonging to Pedi- 

 culus c , and mites (Acarus gynuwpterorum, L.) are fre- 



a Mr. Kittoe. b Plate V. Fig. 3. 



c MelUtophagus, Mus. Kirby. See Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 168. I copy 

 the following memorandum respecting M. Melittce from my common- 

 place-book, May 7, 1812. On the flowers of Ficaria, Taraxacum 

 and Bellis, I found a great number of this insect, which seemed ex- 

 tremely restless, running here and there over the flowers, and over 

 each other, with great swiftness mounting the anthers, and sometimes 

 lifting themselves up above them, as if looking for something. One 

 or two of them leaped upon my hand. Near one of these flowers I 

 found a small Melitta, upon which some of these creatures were busy 

 sucking the poor animal, so that it seemed unable to flv away. When 



