62 



JOURNAL OF TTIK BOYAL TTORTICllLTUTJ AL SOCIETY. 



contain the iHMnnins o[ iliis bug was so oITensive as to render tlie 

 operation of (lissoi iion positively nnbearable, and the fcptid odour was 

 with difficult}" removed from the hands of the operator. 



Another record of interest in refei'ence to the food of this bird was 

 made one day in the month of January, while watching the habits of a 

 pair bringing food to a fully-fledged young one, which had perched 

 itself in a very convenient place for observation, quite close to where 

 the writer was seated. At first one of the old birds was seen to advance 

 with a huge mouthful of something, appearing most like a bundle 

 of dark-coloured feathers, which it was seen to procure from the foot 

 of a tree not fni- away. This object was offered to the young bird 

 and accepted by it iuuuediately ; and wliile it was making a strenuous 

 effort to swallow the dry-looking morsel a couple of missiles thrown 

 into the tree made it relinquish its hold of the object, which, when 

 secured, jiroved to be the somewhat mangled remains of one of the 

 huge black " Witch Moths " {Erebus argarisfa), measuring originally 

 nearly six inches across the wing. 



Scale Insects Infesting Rubber, 



Broadly speaking, the rubber-producing plants are particularly 

 immune from the attacks of insects. In Jamaica two species of scale 

 insects were found infesting rubber plants, but only one can at present 

 be considered harmfuL The round purple scale {Aspidiotus ficus) was 

 found in small colonies on the leaves of Para rubber (Ilevea hrasiliensis) 

 in the Chapelton district, but not in sufficient numbers to cause any 

 injury to the plants. This insect is, hov/ever, a great pest in many 

 parts of the world, so that its presence should be looked upon with 

 suspicion, and if found to increase in numbers should be checked 

 before it gets headway and thus becomes a menace to such an important 

 article of commerce. 



The Central American rubber [Castilloa elastica) in certain portions 

 of the island is, however, very severely attacked by a common white 

 Diaspid scale (fig. 39) (Biaspis amygdali), and so serious was the 

 infestation in the Chapelton district that measures were taken to check 

 its ravages. The young trees which were examined by the writer had 

 attained a height of some ten feet or more, and the long, slender stems 

 of a large percentage of these were found to be covered with the scales, 

 and in those colonies which had become overcrowded the insect had 

 migrated to the leaves, on which they had fixed themselves chiefly, 

 or almost exclusively, along the ribs of the great leafy fronds, forming 

 distinct white lines which were quite conspicuous even at so great a 

 distance from the ground. 



At first it was difficult tO' account for the presence of this insect, and 

 it was assumed that possibly it was present upon the young plants 

 when imported from the nurseries. But on carefully examining other 



* Mr. Maxwell Lefroy rerords {7m]i. Dept. Agric. Bull., vol. iii. 1902) the 

 occurrence of Af<pifliofus arfin/Iafu.^, A. rydoniae and Af^terolecanium pvstulans 

 on Castilloa at St. Kitts. 



