repealed in 1845. In 1869 the exports of cochineal from the Canaries reached 6,310,000 Ib, value 842,921. Of this amount 4,232,600 tt>, consisting of g rana,graniUa, and polro, were shipped to Great Britain, value 554,092 More than half of this quantity was supplied by the Island of Grand Canary. In three months ending 31st March
1376 the imports were 10,094 cwts, value 112,534.
HandbucJi dcr Entomologie ; Vincent, Ann. 8d. Nat., vol. viii., 1st scr.; Westwood, Modern Classification of Insects, pp. 448, 449. 1691, pp. 502-3 ; and lioyle s Essay on the Productive Resources of India, pp. 47-65, 1840.
COCKATOO (Cacatuidce), a family of Scansorial Birds, distinguished from other Old World parrots by their greater size, by a crest of feathers on the head, which cau be raised or depressed at will, and by their enormously developed bills. They inhabit the Indian Archipelago, New Guinea, aud Australia, and are gregarious, frequenting woods and feeding on seeds, fruits, and the larvre of insects. Their note is generally harsh and unmusical, and although they are readily tamed when taken young, becoming familiar, and in some species showing remarkable intelligence, their powers of vocal imitation are exceedingly limited. Of the true cockatoos (Cacatua) ths best known is the Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), of a pure white plumage with the exception of the crest, which is deep sulphur yellow, and of the ear and tail coverts, which are slightly tinged with yellow. The crest when erect stands 5 inches high. Those birds are found in Australia in flocks varying from 1 00 to 1000 in number, and do great damage to newly sown grain, for which reason they are mercilessly destroyed by farmers. They deposit their eggs two in number, and of a pure white colour in the hollows of decayed trees, or in the fissures of rocks, according to the nature of the locality in which they reside. This is the species usually kept in Europe as a cage bird. Leadbetter s Cockatoo (Cacatua Leadbeateri), an inhabitant of South Australia, excels all others in the beauty of its plumage, which consists in great part of white, tinged with rose colour, becoming a deep salmon colour under the wings, while the crest is bright crimson at the base, with a yellow spot in the centre and white at the tip. It is exceedingly shy and difficult of approach, and its note is more plaintive while less harsh than that of the preceding species. In the cockatoos belonging to the genus Calyptorhynchus the general plumage is black or dark brown, usually with a large spot or band of red or yellow on the tail, and in some species behind the ear also. The largest of these is known as the Funereal Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus), from the lugubrious note or call which it utters, resembling the two syllables Wy la , the native name of the species. It deposits its eggs in the hollows of the large gum trees of Australia, and feeds largely on the larvae of insects, in search of which it peel off the bark of trees, and when thus employed it may be approached closely. " When one is shot, the remainder of the company," says Gould, " fly round for a short distance, and perch on the neighbouring trees until the whole are brought down."
COCKATRICE, a fabulous monster, the existence which was firmly believed in throughout ancient and mediaeval times, descriptions and figures of it appearing in the natural history works of such writers as Pliny and Aldrovandus, those of the latter published so late as the beginning of the 17th century. Produced from a cock s egg hatched by a serpent, it was believed to possess the most deadly powers, plants withering at its touch, and men and animals dying poisoned by its look. It stood in awe, lowever, of the cock, the sound of whose crowing killed it, and consequently travellers were wont to take this bird with them in travelling over regions supposed to abound in cockatrices. The weasel alone among mammals was unaffected by the glance of its evil eye, and attacked it at all times successfully ; for when wounded by the monster s teeth it found a ready remedy in rue the only plant which the cockatrice could not wither. This myth reminds one of the real contests between the weasel-like mungoos of India and the deadly cobra, in which the latter is generally cilled. The term " cockatrice " is employed on four occasions in the English translation of the Bible, in all of which it denotes nothing more than an exceedingly venomous reptile ; it seems also to be synonymous with " Basilisk," the mythical king of serpents.
brated for having written one of the most exquisite of Scottish ballads, the " Flowers of the Forest,"[1] was the daughter of a border laird, Robert Rutherfurd of Fairnalee, and was born in the heart of the Southern Highlands in the autumn of 1712. Her education was slight, She spent her youth in rambling and riding about the country side, and in paying visits to an aged minister in the neigh bourhood, of whose " heavenly affection " for her she wrote enthusiastically in after years. She was a graceful dancer, spent two winter seasons in Edinburgh, and was one of the Edinburgh belles of her time. Different causes have been assigned for the composition of the " Flowers of the Forest." Mr Chambers states that it was written on the occasion of a great commercial disaster which ruined the fortunes of some Selkirkshire lairds. Her later bio graphers, however, think it more probable that it was written on the departure to London of a certain John Aikman, between whom and Alison there appears to have been an early attachment. In 1731 Alison Rutherfurd was married to Patrick Cockburn of Ormiston, one of a family of stanch Whigs and Presbyterians, and an advo cate at the Scottish bar. After her marriage she knew all the intellectual and aristocratic celebrities of her day. In the memorable year 1745 she vented herWhiggism in a squib upon Prince Charlie, and narrowly escaped being taken by the Highland guard as she was driving through Edinburgh in the family coach of the Keiths of Ravelston, with the parody in her pocket. Mrs Cockburn was an indefatigable letter-writer and a composer of parodies, squibs, toasts, and "character-sketches" then a favourite form of composi tion like other wits of her day ; but the " Flowers of the Forest" is the only thing she wrote that possesses great lite rary merit. She survived her husband forty-one years, living to the age of eighty-two, and to the last she main tained her social popularity. At her house on Castle-hill, and afterwards in Crighton Street, she received many illus trious friends, among whom w y ere Mackenzie, Robertson, Hume, Home, Monboddo, the Keiths of Ravelston, the Balcarres family, and Lady Anne Barnard, the authoress of " Auld Robin Gray." She was in Edinburgh when Dr Johnson visited that city, towed thither by the triumphant Boswell. She saw and commented upon Burns s short, bright Edinburgh career. As a Rutherfurd she was a con
nection of Sir Walter Scott s mother, and was her intimate
- ↑ There are two versions of this song, the one by Mrs Cockburn, the other by Miss Jean Elliot of Minto. Both were founded on the remains of an ancient Border ballad. It is believed by the descendants of her family that Mrs Cockburn composed her version that beginning " I ve seen the smiling of fortune beguiling" before her marriage in 1/31. Anyhow, it was composed many years before Jean Elliot s sister verses, beginning, " I ve heard them lilting at our ewe-milking." These were written in 1756, and printed soon afterwards. Mrs Cockburn s song, however, was not pxiblished until 1765, when Jean Elliot s was already popular.
