4

the Scolopterus bidens, from the island of New Zealand, upon the other.
I also thank you for three good specimens of the scales of the Osage Orange Coccus. If
you look again, I think you will perceive that the margin is of a paler brown color than the
disk, and very much the same hue as is the well-known "bed-bug"- which is as good a represent-
ative of what we term a "ferruginous" color, as anything I know of. There is ^also a slight notch
at one end - a mark common to the species of this genus. On the whole, I doubt
whether, if we had genuine specimens of the Coccus from the fig tree, they would
show the marks mentioned by Fabricius any plainer than these do.
I shall be down to Albany next week, and hope to receive the box you
speak of sending by Express. If that said live rattlesnake will not be too
petulent a pet, and can be easily kept, I should like him well enough to let
him live - provided he will consent to do so in a very tight box. I suspect such
a curiosity hereabouts would attract more notice from visitors than the best box of
insects I have got.
I have not enough to make out a box for Prof. de Filipi this winter -
and I ought to receive a return for what I have already forwarded him, before
sending him anything more.
Yours Truly,
Asa Fitch.
Fitch's Point, (East Greenwich P.O.)
Nov, 20. 1854.