LIBRARY OF TH K 
 
 University of California. 
 
 I TIXG BRANCH. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 n 
 
 <n -w6eW: or a week before the end of .the term. 
 
OF 
 
 AN OLD PEAB-TBEE, 
 
THE POPULATION 
 
 OF 
 
 AN OLD PEAE-TEEE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 Stories of Insect fife. 
 
 PROM THE FRENCH OF 
 
 E. VAN BRUYSSEL. 
 
 V- 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE." 
 
 WITH 
 
 NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY BECKER. 
 
 AND CO. 
 
 63, BLEECKER STREET, 
 
 1870. 
 [The Riald of Translation and Reproduction is reserved] 
 

 LONDON : 
 
 R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS; 
 BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 INTRODUCTION . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GRAPHIC SKETCHES 18 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES 49 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN EXCURSION INTO THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD . . . G8 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WANDERING TRIBES 90 
 
riii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 NOTES OF THE TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE 105 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SOLITARY BEES 119 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DIGGERS 136 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 STILT WALKERS 152 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FUOM THE MEADOW TO THE WILDERNESS . . . . . . 167 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A VINDICATION 183 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE OBSEQUIES OF A FIELD MOUSE ........ 198 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION 213 
 
THE 
 
 POPULATION OF AN OLD PEAR-TREE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 WHEN certain blue spirits begin .to flit 
 about me, I depart from my study to go and 
 read, in what I am allowed, even by my clerical 
 uncle, to call my book of devotions. 
 
 The devotions I mean are not in my book- 
 case. No publisher, if he ever thought of such 
 a thing, could bring them out. They are a page 
 of the book of Nature, opened in the country, 
 under blue sky, displayed at all seasons. Every 
 
 B 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 one has looked at that book, but few of us under- 
 stand it in any degree, and the man who could 
 read it all would be the wisest in the world. 
 
 In short, my book is a meadow lying not 
 far from the town where I was born. A 
 substantial farmer gets two crops of hay off it, 
 and is well satisfied. 
 
 I go there to do nothing, and am still better 
 satisfied, and we are not at all in each other's 
 way. 
 
 No traveller in search of scenery has ever 
 found so fair a spot as my meadow. Set within 
 a frame of beautiful hills, it is like a great 
 amphitheatre, the only entrance being a narrow 
 cleft with a brook at the bottom. It is entirely 
 enclosed by a verdant screen of ambitious shrubs. 
 Unnumbered generations of primroses, periwinkles, 
 violets, and lilies of the valley grow on the 
 slopes. Birds make their nests there, twittering 
 and singing at the top of their voices ; one 
 insect chases another from flower to flower like 
 fantastic sylphs; thence the bee draws her honey, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 there the hare makes her form ; my meadow is 
 all jubilant with song, colour, and light. Now I 
 will tell you how I was admitted into its secrets. 
 
 One day I went out with heavy head, restless 
 eye, and gloomy temper. I walked straight on, 
 like a crane or a bittern, without pausing at the 
 wayside attractions. Such demeanour, absurd afc 
 it is, generally indicates some mental disquiet. 
 The happy man, provided he be taken up with 
 other thoughts, moves in curves or zigzags, nearer 
 and farther, backwards and forwards, in no haste 
 to be at his journey's end. I had, however, no 
 reason to complain that I had trusted to the 
 guidance of my star. Chance, the odours of 
 spring, and a fortunate instinct, conducted me 
 on that day to a splendid discovery. 
 
 All at once I found before me a vast lawn 
 clothed in green velvet, with gold and silver 
 enamel. Some old trees stretched out into the 
 sunshine ; stunted and knotty, they waved in the 
 breeze their long limbs all covered with infant 
 fruits. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 At sight of them the frown left my brow, 
 and I began to improve. I relaxed my hurried 
 pace ; I began by sitting down, and at last lay 
 down at full length on the grass. I like that 
 posture, for it disposes one to contemplation. 
 
 I cried, " Oh how good it is to see no more 
 houses, streets, or squares ! How I enjoy this 
 sweet solitude, full of love and peace, gaining 
 new charms from each dawning day ! " 
 
 With this, my thoughts wandering in a thou- 
 sand visions, the characters of past, present, and 
 future, I soon came to dream that I was dreaming ; 
 then softly, without effort, slipping from one 
 breath to another, I slept the sleep of the just. 
 
 Gradually I became, as it were, lulled and 
 benumbed by dreamy sensations ; but I was 
 startled out of this happy condition by angry 
 howls, uncertain cries, and passionate exclama- 
 tions resounding close to me. One voice mur- 
 mured : 
 
 " Oh, what pain I am in ! bruised all over, 
 and my wing dreadfully crumpled ! If I only 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 could get it out ! But no, he will not move, and 
 I am kept prisoner by a bent stalk." 
 
 Others cried, " Prick him, bite him, tear him 
 with your sharp claws : he is a hideous arid 
 disgusting monster ; he cannot take a single 
 step without committing a crime ; his path is 
 strewed with the dead and dying/' 
 
 I immediately felt a strange tingling in all 
 my limbs, but it was too slight to wake me 
 entirely. It seemed as if all the pores of my 
 skin were being furnished with wondrously sharp 
 and piercing eyes. All my senses at once be- 
 came marvellously acute. The hum of a gnat 
 seemed like the sound of a trumpet, and the per- 
 'fume of lilies of the valley, wafted on the breeze, 
 was strong enough to intoxicate my senses. 
 
 " Is this," I thought, " the beginning of another 
 life, and have I died without finding it out 1 
 After all, why should I be surprised 1 Did I 
 make a note of my natal hour, the fleeting moment 
 when I inhaled my first breath ? Dead or alive, 
 I will be all ears and eyes." 
 
INTRODUCTION. , 7 
 
 I now saw the face of nature under a quite 
 novel aspect, from the point of view of the 
 smallest members of creation. Instead of re- 
 clining on a carpet of greensward, I found I 
 was in an immense tangled forest made up of 
 giant grasses, whose long streamers waving in the 
 air were composed of a splendid tissue of green 
 and gold spangled with crystal spikes. The most 
 humble flowers appeared to me to be magnificent 
 plants of unusual splendour. The very daisy 
 close beside me had acquired a majestic grace, 
 and the stalk surprised me by its dimensions. 
 This stem was of a tender green colour and 
 clothed with long glassy hairs, growing more close 
 together at the top, forming fasces around 
 the flowery crown. Among the pretty white 
 petals so often used by young girls in divining 
 their fortunes, where I had never before seen 
 anything but the golden heart, I now perceived 
 a great nosegay of yellow blossoms interspersed 
 with little transparent balls, and perfectly regular. 
 This is no exaggeration ; I really saw what I 
 
g INTRODUCTION. 
 
 describe, remembering all the time that it is hard 
 to believe. 
 
 The very ground was changed wherever it was 
 not covered with grass. The whole surface shone 
 with precious stones. Every grain of sand, spark- 
 ling with many colours, and darting a thousand 
 fires, was worthy to be set in a sovereign's ring. 
 
 I remembered that I had lain down at the 
 foot of a pear-tree, just bursting into leaf with 
 the warm breath of spring, though much injured 
 by the winter's cold. I saw it again, but so 
 wonderfully enlarged, that I really could not take 
 it all in at once. Its bark had quite disappeared, 
 giving place to a rich carpet of white, green, or 
 yellow moss, in the most whimsical patterns. At 
 times this verdant veil was raised by certain flat, 
 bald heads, with great glaring round eyes, and 
 bearing powerful hooks instead of jaws, which 
 took a curious survey of me. For an instant I 
 feared I should be eaten up, and then returned 
 to my mind a picture of Breughel's, of the in- 
 fernal regions, in which the demons are drawn 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with cloven feet and large stomachs, grinning, 
 leaping, and dancing, and with a human form 
 struggling among them. Eeally I did deserve a 
 chastisement for my intrusion into the meadow, 
 the disastrous consequences of which I now had 
 power to perceive to the full extent. I had bruised 
 the tender stalks of springing grass, broken quan- 
 tities of buds, and destroyed myriads of living 
 creatures. In my stupid simplicity I had never 
 had any suspicion of the pain I caused while 
 perpetrating these evil deeds, and had been in 
 a state of delight at the profound peace pervading 
 the country, and the charms of solitude. What 
 peace, and what solitude ! 
 
 I was beginning to pity and say disagreeable 
 things to myself, the privilege of intimacy, 
 when a stifled cry was forced from my lips, 
 and my blood was frozen in my veins by an 
 unexpected sight. A terrible creature, at the 
 recollection of which I still shudder, had suddenly 
 Appeared in my sight, hanging over my head like 
 an acrobat on his trapeze. It was an enormous 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 11 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 spider, keeping her great black eyes constantly 
 fixed on mine with a most implacable expression. 
 Slowly, slowly did she descend from one of the 
 branches of the old Pear-Tree. 
 
 Eeader, allow me here to break into my tale 
 with the confession of one of my failings. By 
 nature I have many, and am not sorry for it, 
 because it is perhaps, thanks to my own faults, 
 that I have become indulgent to those of others. 
 I have no right to set up for rigid virtue. The 
 Athenians banished Aristides because they were 
 tired of hearing him called the Just ; and for my 
 part, so far I have lived in peace under my own 
 roof. Now, of course I am brave, but only about 
 half-brave. I am able to make a valiant resist- 
 ance to any attack when once hand-to-hand with 
 the aggressor ; but when it is a waiting matter, 
 seeing him approach gradually, holding his breath, 
 and while I momentarily expect a deadly hug, 
 which still comes not, at these my nerves become 
 agitated, stiffen, give way, and I fall into a strange 
 condition. I am not exactly afraid, but I feel as 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 a hare must when just found by a pointer-dog in 
 her form. Thus was I while the giant spider, full 
 of savage strength and vigour, descended from 
 the branches of the tree beneath which I had 
 slumbered. 
 
 The body was clothed in a kind of grey fur, 
 and of a ruddy brown colour, varied by some 
 marked patterns in a bright yellow. The active 
 limbs, thin, sinewy, of considerable strength, were 
 in incessant motion ; they were armed with claws 
 like a cat's, and as hard and sharp as blades of 
 steel. The mouth bore a pair of mandibles, and 
 two hooks. These last implements were each ter- 
 minated by a small hole, the issues of canals lead- 
 ing from poison-glands full of a deadly liquid. 
 
 I was confounded, and would have given the 
 whole world to have been able to run away as fast 
 as my legs would carry me ; but they refused their 
 office. The spider continued to descend, turning 
 and twisting in the wind, and, like a cat watching 
 a mouse, stared at me and fascinated me with her 
 big jet-black eyes. Strangely engrossed in spite of 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 my increasing agitation, I did not miss a single 
 one of her movements. The silk she hung by was 
 an absolute rope, composed of a vast quantity of 
 extremely fine strands, which issued from four 
 conical humps she bore on her abdomen. These 
 threads at first were sticky and slimy, but soon 
 hardened in the air, while she united them by the 
 movements of her feet. 
 
 My fate was coming to a crisis. The monster's 
 claws were not above an inch from my cheek, 
 when she all at once stopped and climbed up hei 
 rope with great rapidity. 
 
 I was safe ! Above me, in an immensely 
 strong web, which reminded me of the great nets 
 our fishermen use, was struggling a black fly, with 
 great masses of eyes, arranged like the facets of a 
 precious stone on each side of his head, his throat 
 and body glittering in the sun as if clothed in 
 fine burnished Milan steel. On his back was a 
 yellowish moving spot, which really was a parasitic 
 insect. This strange rider, foreseeing a catastrophe 
 by the instinct peculiar to creatures of his kind, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 was hastily disentangling the two grapplers that 
 secured his hold on his victim, and arranging his 
 retreat. He was flat and hideous, with long suckers, 
 and a body puffed out with blood. 
 
 Poor fly ! It looked so wretched that I almost 
 thought its expression human. I had already 
 witnessed similar scenes in my native town. Is it 
 not thus that the artist, with his love of the 
 beautiful, intoxicated with independence, generous 
 even to prodigality, falls into the nets of Shylock 
 the money-lender, a crawling v/retch, who lives 
 by trickery, and watches in the shade for his 
 prey? Poor artist! Indignant at having fallen 
 under such a yoke, he exhausts his strength in 
 futile resistance ! Even so was it with the fly. 
 Caught by one wing it struggled frantically. 
 There is always some hope, even in the most 
 desperate case. 
 
 It is matter, I thought, for rejoicing, that we 
 are all ignorant, both men and beasts, of the 
 secret of our fate. Great Heaven ! what a life 
 should we lead could we guess the riddle of this 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sphinx, immoveable guardian of the shrine! And 
 really is not the work hard and harvest scanty 
 for a great proportion of us ? Many germs are 
 blighted, or do not reach maturity, and many a 
 spring is dried up before its silver thread can 
 mingle with the great waves of the blue ocean. 
 The fly had nearly regained freedom. The 
 network around it was yielding on all sides, when 
 the spider rushed upon it, and strained it in a 
 close embrace. The captive repulsed her, stif- 
 fening all its limbs to the utmost, but, sad to 
 relate, not in time to avoid a savage wound, filled 
 with poisonous juice ; and, thus paralysed, its cou- 
 rage was all in vain. The spider, crushing down 
 a final throe of life, turned it round and round, 
 smeared it with sticky slime, covered it with 
 threads, and began to devour it. Meanwhile the 
 abject parasite I have before mentioned had let 
 itself fall on the ground, and with difficulty dragged 
 itself along the sand a short distance from me. 
 Certainly the little abortion was not without dex- 
 terity. It was of those who survive all disasters, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 pass uninjured through all 
 
 find a niche to rest in somewhere. It all depends 
 
 on constitution. 
 
 I had been greatly excited by these scenes, 
 and remained asleep, my head in shade, and feet 
 in sunshine. Had my dream lasted minutes, 
 hours, or days ? I had no knowledge of time, 
 and murmured with my lips : 
 
 " The book of creation is hard to read, and 
 at times there is much pain in learning its lessons. 
 The whole is contained in every individual thing ! 
 The range of our view is bounded by infinity. 
 This lowest parasite, fallen from, a fly's wing, 
 perhaps had his own vermin preying on himself. 
 In space there is star beyond star ; on earth one 
 atom is lost in another atom." 
 
 I stopped, confounded by this overwhelming 
 thought ; here began my initiation. The cha- 
 racter of the meadow had changed, and I thence- 
 forward called it my book of devotion. 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 MY astonishment had already been excited 
 by the vast bulk of the old tree at whose feet 
 I had seated myself, and I continued to gaze 
 upon it. Firmly anchored in the ground, with 
 penetrating powerful roots, and bravely raising its 
 splendid trunk with a crown of multitudinous 
 branches to the sky, through which it projected 
 a wide and deep shadow penetrated by many 
 brilliant lights, around it had perished myriads 
 of beings benumbed by the approach of cold, 
 exhausted by famine and misery ; while it, always 
 sound and vigorous, clothed itself with returning 
 
GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 19 
 
 spring with a fresh vesture. Eain, hail, and storm 
 destroying legions of living atoms, could hardly 
 bend its head. An unmoved witness, it took its 
 part in the many pageants of my meadow's 
 
 stage. 
 
 Envy could not begrudge a princely state to 
 this old patrician ; for so it seemed by nature. 
 The old Pear-Tree was gentle and kind to the 
 weak, like a nobleman come of a good stock. The 
 
 C 2 
 
20 GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 farmer's children climbed the branches yearly, and 
 thence gathered a quantity of fine ripe fruit ; 
 while wasps and caterpillars took their share. 
 Here and there young twigs might be cut away, 
 but these slight thefts were of no consequence. 
 Does the owner of a great landed property, the 
 accumulation of many years, with secure title- 
 deeds, trouble himself for the vile pilfering of 
 some petty bailiff? He deigns not to interfere, 
 although aware of what is going on. Examples 
 of all sorts are found in this world, from the 
 oak scattering its acorns in the forest, down to 
 the animal that searches for them in the mud. 
 Ducklings hasten into the water, while chickens 
 dare not quit the bank ; each does according to 
 its own particular nature. 
 
 Our tree, full of rich sap, had more clients 
 than a Roman senator. And first, there lived 
 in the folds of the bark a curious race very 
 homely, without much elegance, but very lively. 
 It was a tribe of woodlice, of all ages, and different 
 shapes and colours. Young or old, they looked 
 
GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 21 
 
 quite unpleasant enough, and I should not have 
 liked to see them march towards me. Their bodies, 
 all of a size, were composed of ten rings, or plates, 
 of an ash colour. I could make out with some 
 difficulty a little dusky head in front of the 
 foremost, bearing two bending and very active 
 antennae. 
 
 They went and came, biting and gnawing all 
 sorts of rubbish, and even making attacks on 
 the still tender stalks of newly budding plants. 
 Did any one of them suffer from any accident, 
 the whole party rushed on him, and made a 
 meal on his carcase. Is not this too often the 
 fate of those who fail, men or beasts ? How 
 much better is it to dismember a motionless body, 
 
22 GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 like the woodlice, than to fatten on the reputation 
 of an honest man. But not to moralize too 
 much. 
 
 My woodlice, like some politicians, clever people 
 otherwise, often put on a new coat, withdrawing 
 carefully from their old shell body, legs, and 
 horns. They were of all shades, according to their 
 age from pale grey to dark grey, spotted with 
 black spots, and little yellow. The females bore 
 a little bag of a thin transparent skin, in which 
 were enclosed their progeny. 
 
 I was watching them running through the 
 moss, when a sharp metallic sound recalled me to 
 other scenes. I thought a little silver bell had 
 been rung near the mouth of a dark cavern, 
 opening in a slope, about two steps off. The 
 sound was repeated louder, and I saw appear 
 a long head, with four great thick appendages, as 
 well as two antennae as fine as threads. Behind 
 these antennae were placed two great eyes; between 
 them were seen three others smaller, placed in 
 the same transverse line. 
 
GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 23 
 
 As the new-comer emerged from the darkness, 
 she displayed two enormous legs, very strong and 
 flat, enlarged towards the ends, and terminating 
 in six claws, like the teeth of a saw, four turning 
 outwards and two inwards. On her breast was 
 
 a long soit of cuirass, almost circular, and covered 
 with velvet ; on her back were two short cases, 
 laid across and partly hiding two great wings 
 folded to a point. 
 
 I at once knew her, from having in my youth 
 
24 GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 hunted her, and often unsuccessfully ; it was the 
 mole-cricket. 
 
 The insect advanced slowly, ready to return 
 to her cave on the least alarm. Living alone she 
 had become restless and suspicious, like all those 
 who avoid company. Terrified where there was no 
 danger, she was only happy in the dark, hanging 
 to the feeding roots of some plant, or attacking 
 with blows of her claws a wretched earth-worm 
 too lazy to escape. 
 
 Why had this misanthrope left her peaceful, 
 safe harbour to venture herself into the meadow ? 
 
 The silver bell tinkled on, and its shrill note 
 mingled with the sound of the wind among the 
 leaves. The mole-cricket heard it with a shudder, 
 stopped in uncertainty, and then resumed her 
 march, guided by a mysterious power that she 
 hardly tried to resist. Was it magnetism, or 
 fascination, or combined of both ? A little of it, 
 and something more ; for the silver sounds that 
 rang around the strange creature were her 
 ' wedding-bells. Her cruel nature could only be 
 
GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 25 
 
 softened by spring, with its warm air and 
 opening flowers. 
 
 At any other season, very far from greeting 
 favourably the elegant gentleman who was now 
 tinkling at his own door, she would have rushed ; 
 at him and torn his face. To-day, not so warlike, 
 almost mild, she passed to the nuptial meeting. 
 
 As the spouses drew nearer, the silver bell 
 rang less loudly and more airily. The motions of 
 the wings of the male, violent of late, which 
 produced this curious sound, grew feebler by 
 degrees. He was hid under the grass, and my 
 mole-cricket too disappeared there. I heard two 
 or three more indistinct and plaintive notes, and 
 then the meadow was 'quite quiet. 
 
 At this moment my sensations were indescri- 
 bable. Proud of the wonderful perfection of my 
 eyesight, and Bearing, rejoicing in these new 
 faculties, I wondered how I could ever have lived 
 so long nearly blind and half deaf. - Nothing 
 now escaped my notice, and all nature found a 
 reflection in me, with an especial clearness and 
 
26 GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 precision. I was in a state of beatitude, some- 
 times felt, but seldom when in perfect health. I 
 was alive, and thought, and yet did not feel my 
 body any longer. Pain or pleasure was not felt 
 in it, as I wandered like a spirit through the 
 regions of dream and fancy. Again the grass 
 was disturbed, and the mole-cricket returned 
 towards me, thrusting itself through the grass, 
 and making its way towards the slope of ground. 
 When she got a few inches away from her former 
 mansion, she extended her great palms and began 
 to scratch the earth. Soon an excavation was 
 made, lengthened into a perpendicular shaft, then 
 turned towards the left at a slight slope. The 
 work was done quickly and energetically. 
 
 When this first operation was complete, the 
 insect set to work to burrow horizontally, and 
 made a small oval chamber, carefully smoothing 
 its walls. This was not far under ground, 
 between two great roots of the Pear-Tree, and 
 not beyond the influence of the heat of the sun. 
 There, believing herself secure from interruption, 
 
GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 27 
 
 the mole-cricket laid about a hundred eggs, 
 almost transparent, gelatinous, and of a greenish 
 tint. Burial was not enough ; they must be pro- 
 tected from marauders. This was provided by the 
 careful mother making fortifications round them, in- 
 trenchments, ramparts, and covered ways. Satisfied 
 with her work, she took post as sentry not far off, 
 ready, at the least alarm, to come to the rescue. 
 
 A number of very busy ants were always 
 passing, to and fro on the trunk of the old Pear- 
 Tree, mounting to the first branches and coming 
 down again, for ever repeating the same evolutions. 
 I watched one in particular, climbing among the 
 lichens and mosses, and searching everywhere with 
 its antennae, using them indeed as feelers. At a 
 certain height she stopped at once before a kind 
 of whitish shell, half hidden between two bite of 
 bark. She went round it, and felt it all over, 
 pressed it between her paws, and gnawed at it 
 in a fever of impatience. 
 
 We will shortly give the history of this egg 
 so greedily sought for. 
 
GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
GRAPHIC SKETCHES. C9 
 
 If an idler had stopped under our old Pear- 
 Tree in the first months of summer, he might 
 have remarked a sort of woodlouse of liliputian 
 dimensions, moving under the leaves and on the 
 twigs of the plant ; it had two horns, six feet, 
 and a body composed of six rings, and was powdery 
 all over. This individual had among othei 
 peculiarities an impossible mouth, situated on its 
 chest between the first pair of legs. It was 
 composed of a sort of hillock or pipe of flesh, 
 very short, and proceeding from it a very long 
 thin white thread. By this pipe does the little 
 creature take its nourishment, thrusting it deeply 
 into the vegetable tissues. Our false woodlouse 
 with a Greek name, aphis, after wandering some 
 time free and happy, settled down, and placed 
 itself in a well-sheltered spot. There it remained 
 motionless, tired of adventures, without leaving 
 the spot. Those limbs, lately so supple, grew stiff 
 for want of employment, and at last their use 
 was lost. At the end of winter it would have 
 perished without sign of life or movement if 
 
an GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 plucked from its retreat. Once fixed, it had 
 become larger and stronger, and grown to the 
 size of a small bean. As the skin stretched, the 
 wrinkles disappeared, and the aphis became n 
 slightly oblong lump. 
 
 Our wretched insect thus entered on the last 
 stage of its existence. One day this half dead, 
 oblong lump began to lay eggs; and as these, 
 passing under it, were collected beneath, the shell 
 which served them as a wrapper covered them. 
 At last it made the plunge from life to death, 
 having outlasted the male with his light trans- 
 parent wings. 
 
 Then this white shell, hanging between two 
 pieces of bark, was the cradle of a generation. 
 No wonder now at the excitement of the greedy 
 ant at discovering this treasure. Inside were 
 many eggs of a reddish colour, hard and shining, 
 protected from the cold by a coverlet, like cotton, 
 of a white sticky powder. The robber was hard 
 at work with her mandibles, . when one of her 
 own kind, likewise on quest since morning, all at 
 

 GKAPHIC SKETCKBS:'..; y 31 
 
 once appeared, and made one spring towards the 
 aphis. 
 
 Between the disputants ensued a long discourse ; 
 they angrily rubbed their horns against each other, 
 clearly remonstrating with one another. At last 
 victory declared for the right of the first comer, 
 but not -without a violent debate : while the 
 intruder yielded unwillingly, without giving up a 
 pleasant hope of future fortune, were it no better 
 than the gleanings of another's field. Eetiriug a 
 couple of inches from the shell, she turned her 
 head away with so sad and confused an air that 
 I could not help repeating Pliny's words : " In 
 formicd non modo sensus sed etiam mens, ratio, 
 memoria" That is to say, he attributes to my 
 ant mind, reasoning power, and memory. This 
 scene was often repeated, and soon around the 
 aphis was gathered a ring of anxious -watchers, 
 while in the centre the first-comer reigned with 
 unrivalled grandeur. She had possession, and 
 made a brave defiance to the opposition, with 
 fierce gestures of her mandibles, eyes flaming, and 
 
32 GRAPHIC SKETCHES. 
 
 eloquent antennae. All this was very much like 
 parliament, I do assure you, and I fancied I heard 
 her say, like one great minister of times gone by 
 . . . but just at present I cannot remember his 
 speech. Besides, I never understood anything in 
 politics, except that it is a science that all the 
 world lays claim to knowing, without the trouble 
 of learning. I can only answer for one thing, 
 that our ant proved to her own satisfaction the 
 goodness of her cause, but without convincing her 
 antagonists that they were in the wrong. 
 
 Do not those who are lucky enough to be 
 formed in the great school of life act much in 
 this way, with more or less of talent than the 
 victorious ant ? 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 NEXT came a cockchafer, big, heavy, and 
 rough-footed, tumbling about like a comfortable 
 citizen who has stayed too long at the public- 
 house, and is going home a good deal too late, 
 and pretty well scared at being alone. He took 
 long steps but did not get on much, for he was 
 blinded by the sunlight, and his great tail dragged 
 in the sand. At first sight one would have thought 
 that he had been feasting too deeply on "the 
 branches of the old Pear-Tree, and that some 
 drops of dew had disturbed his brain. Yet this 
 idea would have been very incorrect ; for in truth 
 
 D 
 
34 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS 
 
 the poor creature was only dazzled, and certainly 
 so might any one have been in his place, for he 
 had just made his entrance into the world. 
 
 Four years before, on a fine June evening, 
 his mother had dug a trench in the ground at 
 the foot of the great tree, and laid some oblong 
 eggs in it of a pale yellow colour. When she had 
 satisfactorily accomplished this, returning above 
 ground she inhaled the balmy breaths of air in 
 a melancholy mood ; arid after having spent a 
 few days on a leafy branch, at last fell from it 
 and died amid the stalks of a forget-me-not. 
 
 She had laid her eggs side by side ; and as 
 time went by, and they felt the reviving in- 
 fluences of spring, they gradually changed their 
 colour. At last thence issued certain six-footed 
 white larvae, and among them our cockchafer, 
 then only a humble worm a kind of false cater- 
 pillar with five rings. His head was scaly, hard, 
 and rather brown ; there were two great eyes in 
 it, and it had strong jaws, finished off by a pair 
 of short antennae. 
 
A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 35 
 
 Almost with his first breath of life began 
 sharp twinges in the region of the stomach, and 
 lie set ravenously to work, with a fierce burning, 
 insatiable appetite. He grew and changed his 
 
 skin while feeding on savoury roots ; careless 
 of what might happen around him, so long as 
 he was continually devouring. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 There are such beings, whose heart and brain 
 are only other forms of the intestinal canal. 
 Speak not to them of art or science, of litera- 
 ture or questions of religion ; they neither under- 
 stand, nor know, nor hear anything of them ; 
 they only eat. 
 
 Thus our larva had gone on eating, and 
 eating to the best of his power, everything he 
 met with for many months. But his appetite 
 relaxed its tyranny as the fourth year drew to 
 its close. Then changing his views, he looked 
 forth, and was sensible of ambition. In prepa- 
 ration for a change, he penetrated deep beneath 
 the ground, and there constructed a smooth and 
 polished chamber remote from curious glances. 
 There he remained torpid until the month of 
 February, having once more cast his vulgar skin 
 and. changed into a chrysalis, and waked at last 
 into a cockchafer, but a soft and white cockchafer. 
 
 The different parts of his body gradually 
 gained hardness and strength, and he issued 
 from his cell, a joyous insect, but withal some- 
 
A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 37 
 
 what clumsily, like a countryfied gentleman in 
 new clothes mixing among persons of rank. 
 
 Behold him marching forth in public, stretch- 
 
 ing his legs with the airs of a provincial dandy 
 freshly launched upon the town. He is in haste, 
 after his long sojourn in the dark, to enjoy the 
 
38 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 verdure as it sparkles in the dew. But there is 
 a stumbling-block in his way, and he stops in 
 surprise. His path is barred by a rock, possibly 
 only a pebble. Anybody but a cockchafer would 
 go round ; but ours is an enterprising hero, and 
 would attempt an escalade. The first attempts at 
 first are unsuccessful, for the surface of the stone 
 is as smooth as glass. He perseveres, waves his 
 great arms in despair, raises himself heavily, and 
 after balancing a moment in the air, his head 
 turns, and he rolls on his back in the dust, 
 abashed and astonished, bruised all over by his 
 fall. 
 
 Never, no, never has such a rebuff fallen 
 under my notice. Can you imagine the feelings 
 of a bachelor of arts finding that there is more 
 left for him to learn 1 Have you probed the sen- 
 sations of a would-be member, cast back upon 
 common life from dreams of becoming the creator 
 of his country's happiness by consulting his own? 
 
 These disappointments, these troubles, these 
 rebuffs were quite a bed of roses compared to 
 
A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 39 
 
 what onr poor sheath-winged friend appeared to 
 feel. To mark his entrance ixto the world, after 
 three years spent in devouring with feverish 
 haste, after a most artistic change into a chry- 
 salis, and bearing a multitude of privations for 
 
 
 u whole winter, by such an astounding somer- 
 sault, it was sad and heart-breaking ; and yet 
 what is more common, among insects at least ? 
 In climbing the mountain too many pebbles of the 
 plain are to be met with, and more cockchafers 
 than one encounter that hard fate. 
 
40 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 However that may be, the poor creature 
 struggled in vain to get up. Whilst he lay on 
 the sand, crushed into despair, the grass was 
 disturbed a short distance from where he lay, 
 and made visible a magnificent beetle, with head 
 and breast of a splendid golden green, of the 
 most brilliant lustre. The wing-cases were 
 channelled by three large furrows, and rose in 
 an elevated form. The furrows between the 
 ridges were more brilliant than the edges of the 
 wing-cases, and the corselet was heart-shaped. 
 The eyes were brown, antennae and feet fawn- 
 coloured, and abdomen greenish black with slightly 
 gilded specks. 
 
 It was easy to see that here was a somewhat 
 important personage ; an old acquaintance of 
 the illustrious Linnaeus, who had conferred on 
 him the title of Carabus viridis, whom the 
 profane call by the more familiar name of 
 predatory beetle.* 
 
 He too, as well as our miserable cockchafer, 
 
 * In French, la Jardiniere, from the quantity of chafers it destroys. 
 
A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 41 
 
 traced his growth from a larva ; but what a larva 
 it was ! Long, round, soft, white, with six scaly 
 feet. There was armour on the back of his head 
 a round plate of a brown colour, a sort of 
 natural buckler and in front of it a greedy mouth 
 furnished with two strong jaws. He never lived 
 on roots, but on raw and bleeding flesh. To 
 obtain this choice nourishment recourse was had 
 to deception, and he dug a pitfall, with his own 
 head for the lid of it. Anything that passed 
 over this moveable surface could not help falling 
 into the gulf, where it was torn to pieces by 
 teeth and claws. 
 
 One of his relations, the larva of the square 
 gold predatory beetle (Cardbus amatus), does the 
 same with less trouble. He just places himself 
 in a nest of processionary caterpillars, and eats 
 them up at leisure. 
 
 Our predatory beetle, on assuming his final 
 shape, had not altered his manners. Not only 
 was he always clad in complete armour for war, 
 but even had received from nature a new weapon 
 
42 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 of offence, being provided with an acrid, burning 
 liquor that he could cast upon his foes; a real 
 insect of prey, Living by rapine and destruction, 
 active, alert, and vigorous, full of courage and 
 ferocity. 
 
 The moment that he set eyes on the still 
 prostrate cockchafer, he rushed on it with incon- 
 ceivable nimbleness, dug his claw into its body, 
 and, horrible to relate, was devouring it like a 
 ferocious tiger. I felt a great desire to crush 
 him with a stone, and make an application of the 
 law of retribution. But what could I do as I lay 
 torpid ? Was not my own life in danger ? True, 
 I had been a man, and as such one of the lords 
 of creation ; but was I so still ? All was altered 
 around me, and my ideas were not so very clear. 
 Had I any right to kill this creature I, whose 
 neighbours raise sheep and oxen, cherish these 
 animals, feed and pet them, to end by cutting 
 their throats or breaking their heads with a pole- 
 
 axe ? 
 
 The cockchafer was at the point of death ; his 
 
A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
44 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 feet only moved feebly. Why, destitute of beak 
 and claws, was lie rash enough to enter a world 
 unfit for him ? Why had he scorned the humble 
 lot of larvae, to mix with the aristocrats, to 
 whom he was fated to fall a victim ? The 
 Carabus, his head buried in the bleeding body, 
 smeared with the sap of life, enjoyed his piece 
 of luck, when one of my little ants on a 
 foraging expedition appeared on the scene of 
 slaughter. Instantly, with wonderful perception, 
 she understood the scene. She rose on her fore- 
 feet, raised her antennae in astonishment, lowered 
 them, and slipped through the grass in haste 
 towards the scene of conflict. 
 
 What was she going to do 1 Did she desire, 
 like a jackal], to gather up the crumbs of this 
 lion's feast ? Was she not rash in venturing so 
 near the high and mighty Carabus Viridis ? 
 
 I followed all her movements with the great- 
 est curiosity. She drew near the pre-occupied 
 Carabus, made a circuit round him, climbed on 
 his back, and furiously attacking him at the 
 
A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 45 
 
 chink of his armour between head and corselet 
 made him let go his prey. The Carabus, enraged 
 at this sudden assault, made violent efforts to get 
 rid of his enemy ; but she clung tight, and 
 grievously vexed him with bites. At last he 
 became alarmed, made a furious bound, left 
 his victim, and rushed into a thicket, quite weary 
 and out of breath. This was doubtless just 
 what the ant wanted ; for, slipping down along 
 her adversary's wing-covers, she set herself to 
 watch. 
 
 This scene had passed so quickly that I had 
 hardly time to consider it. The ant remained 
 motionless, raising her fore-feet in a vigilant 
 attitude. 
 
 I soon saw why. Lord Carabus Viridis, 
 astounded only for the moment by the violent 
 assault he had suffered from, had ceased to 
 retreat, and returned to the charge. No one, 
 however great a philosopher he may be, will- 
 ingly gives up a good meal, especially if he has 
 been up with the dawn, and has not yet had 
 
4fi A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 his breakfast. He looked in doubt from right to 
 left, saw nothing suspicious, and sprang back to 
 his place by the cockchafer. 
 
 The ant was on the look-out for him. Swift 
 as lightning she fastened on him again, found a 
 new way through the joints of his armour, and 
 pricked him so sharply that he shrank with pain, 
 and in his turn rolled on the ground. Rising 
 painfully, conquered, disgraced, completely out of 
 sorts, he scampered off at his best pace, this time 
 with no notion of returning. 
 
 The ant remained victorious on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 " In formica non tnodo sensus, sed etiam 
 mens, ratio, memorial Mind had triumphed over 
 brute force. 
 
 " Brave and honoured ant ! " I cried in trans- 
 port ; " she has a noble heart, whatever the grass- 
 hopper may say. There she comes, like the 
 knight-errant of song, to succour the feeble arid 
 oppressed. This burning sympathy for the suf- 
 ferer, this active and devoted charity, implies 
 
A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 47 
 
 generous and lofty sentiments. May Heaven 
 confound detractors ! " 
 
 Alas ! my enthusiasm did not last long. My 
 ant was of the positivist school, and thought of 
 nothing less than the glory of a generous action. 
 When she found herself alone, she came softly 
 and steadily up to the cockchafer and set to 
 work on him with a good appetite. When she 
 found she had eaten enough, her journey was 
 
 resumed ; till meeting another of her kind, she 
 immediately made a communication to her by the 
 contact of antennae. The new-comer too at once 
 retraced her steps, while the first calmly resumed 
 
48 A TRAGEDY IN THE GRASS. 
 
 her place by the body. A moment later I saw 
 a quantity of ants arrive from all the paths traced 
 round the blades of grass in hastening waves, 
 marching fiercely, like a division on an expedition. 
 The cockchafer was soon covered with them, so 
 that I could hard]y see him. They minced him 
 up, they crumbled him to bits, and in a few 
 moments nothing was left of the poor w r retch but 
 a pair of horny wings, some braised legs, and his 
 corselet half buried in the sand. "Sic transit 
 gloria mundi ! " All is dust and will return to 
 dust. Will the cockchafer grubs take warning by 
 the sad fate of one of them ? will they live for the 
 future in a more retired manner, taking thought 
 that if obscurity is less joyful than broad day, 
 it affords also greater safety ? In a w^ord, will they 
 be wiser than most ' men 'I None can tell. 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 NOTHING conduces to meditation so much as 
 silence, and all sound had died away around me. 
 So I reflected on the late events, and the result 
 was that I all at once cried out, running the 
 risk of rousing the surrounding echoes : 
 
 " Of all the creatures that fly in the air, 
 Swim in the sea, or tread earth so fair, 
 From Paris and Rome to Peru and Japan, 
 The most foolish beast, as I think, is man." 
 
 The lines are Boileau's, but I applied them to 
 myself, and had good reason for putting faith 
 in them. 
 
50 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 "What!"! went on, "did I indeed find fault 
 with a foolish caterpillar, because it was disturbed 
 with a notion of rising in life in obedience to 
 the instinct of improving its condition ? Am I 
 no longer an ardent disciple of the great mindn 
 who have proclaimed the doctrine of continual 
 progress, and must I take my place among the 
 company of meditative admirers of routine ? " 
 
 Taking everything into consideration, our cock- 
 chafer had made only one mistake, and that de- 
 stroyed him, he went away from his kind. The 
 eagle, the lion, the tiger, live alone enfolded in 
 their own fierce royalty, but this condition only 
 suits peculiar natures. Little creatures should 
 assemble and increase their power by combina- 
 tion. Divided, they fall a prey to the strong ; 
 yet, united, their power is invincible. Hercules, 
 the conqueror of the Erymanthian boar, would 
 have been put to flight by a legion of ants. 
 
 As we are on the subject of ants, let us pay 
 them a-, visit and endeavour to penetrate some of 
 their secrets. Our friends of the great Pear-Tree, 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 51 
 
52 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 as we have before pointed out, were of the black 
 race. Their city was placed at the edge of a 
 path, about two yards from the tree. 
 
 They had then made excavations and dug 
 long galleries underground, sustaining the roof 
 by employing roots as pillars. The walls of 
 their habitation were quite smooth and perfectly 
 regular. 
 
 When once our ants were under ground they 
 penetrated more deeply into the earth, and 
 added a second and third story to their abode. 
 Precautions had to be taken against everything 
 the cold of winter, the increase of population, 
 and the damage that might be caused by tor- 
 rents of rain. Such a building as theirs, so 
 solidly supported, presented great advantages for 
 withstanding such calamities. 
 
 Most irreproachable order reigned in the colony 
 that we are describing. Labour was held in high 
 esteem, and each one who took his share always 
 in turn applied himself to the public good. The 
 needs of the society were supplied by hunting, 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CI 
 
 and, contrary to the generally-received opinion, 
 no provision was made for winter. The workers 
 or neuters that is to say, the most active mem- 
 
 bers of the tribe issued at daybreak to attack 
 anything eatable. Fruits, seeds, dead animals, 
 nothing came amiss to them. At times, as we 
 
64 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 have seen, they fell upon a living insect, and 
 tried to take possession of it. If they did not 
 find that they were strong enough to do what 
 they wanted, they sent to seek for assistance, 
 and their victim was soon brought down, yielding 
 to force of numbers and unable to escape them. 
 The enemy, eager for his destruction, not only 
 employed their mandibles like crowbars and pin- 
 cers, but also an acrid irritating liqutr, called by 
 chemists formic acid, which has a most violent 
 poisonous action. 
 
 With the approach of cold our ants retire 
 into their galleries, and close the mouths of them 
 with great care. Then collecting in their larger 
 chambers, heaped close on each other, they fall 
 into a deep torpor. What would be the use in 
 collecting provisions they would not know what 
 to do with ? They have no need of them, and 
 await in their subterranean palace the return of a 
 more mild and genial season. 
 
 Is not the story of the Sleeping Beauty in 
 the Wood, so charming in its simple grace, a 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 55 
 
 leaf borrowed from my book ? Good heavens ! 
 what are we coming to if the fairy tales, to which 
 envious pedants of our day object on the pre- 
 text that they hinder children of two years old 
 from taking a fancy to mathematics, are be- 
 coming realities ? 
 
 The workers are not devoted to the chase 
 alone. A great number of them, less warlike 
 but not less useful, have other cares. Before 
 we speak of these, in order better to understand 
 their importance, let us make another descent 
 into their city, as we have only yet studied its 
 borders. 
 
 In some tolerably spacious chambers we see 
 a crowd of eggs piled close together. They are 
 of different shapes and colours. The smallest 
 are round, white, and opaque ; the larger are more 
 transparent, and have one end slightly curved. 
 Others, of medium size, are semi-opaque, and a 
 sort of white cloud is visible within, longer or 
 
 ' O 
 
 shorter. Around these watch with anxiety and 
 (are the workers we have alluded to. Standing 
 
6 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 high on their fore-feet, there they are ready to 
 defend their charge. Some are engaged in open- 
 ing the entries and kneading the ground, while 
 others remain inactive. If the sun lights up the 
 outside of the nest, the sentinels placed outside 
 nastily descend to the bottom of the habitation, 
 strike their comrades with their antennae, seize 
 on those who seem not to understand them, 
 and drag them to the top. 
 
 Soon the whole is in commotion. The larvae 
 and n;ymphae that spring from the eggs before- 
 mentioned are borne with all haste to the sur- 
 face of the ant-hill to receive the rays of the 
 sun. After an interval they are returned to 
 chambers where there is a warm temperature, 
 but where they are protected from too glaring 
 light. When the star of day is veiled with 
 clouds, or sinks beneath the horizon, the larvae are 
 gathered up again and conveyed to the galleries. 
 
 The larva of the black ant is like a little 
 worm with black feet, fat, short, and conical. 
 The body tapers and bends towards the fore- 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 57 
 
58 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES, 
 
 part, and is composed of a scaly head and 
 twelve rings. The mouth presents two hooks, 
 above which are seen four little points, two on 
 each side, besides a little round protuberance by 
 which the creature receives his portion. The 
 workers give it to him every day, and there is 
 nothing more curious than to see the young 
 larvse reaching out with difficulty, and trying to 
 draw near to their nurse in order to receive 
 from her mandibles the nourishing fluid she 
 has prepared for them. 
 
 Such care must necessarily produce excellent 
 results. The larvae having become large and fat, 
 end by refusing all nourishment, and spin them- 
 selves a shell of silk of a close texture, very 
 smooth, round, and pale yellow. Beneath the 
 protection of this elegant case they tear off their 
 skin, and afterwards appear in all points^ like the 
 perfect insect. But their limbs are still weak 
 and delicate, and would be incapable of exertion. 
 They remain motionless, pass from white to pale 
 yellow, then to russet, and in some species 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 59 
 
 brown or nearly black. This is the moment 
 awaited by the workers. They then approach, 
 and with their mandibles make a cleft in the 
 shell and divide it from top to bottom. They 
 
 *_ 
 
 remove the satin pellicle that envelopes our little 
 mummy, pull out its benumbed feet, support, 
 encourage it, and teach it the way through all 
 the labyrinths of the nest. 
 
 The power of the tribe, already on a firm 
 basis, becomes freshly developed. Some brilliant 
 black flies, with their delicate wings in continual 
 motion, make their appearance among the workers. 
 These are the male and female population of the 
 colony, which must some day face abroad, and 
 go to establish new families at a distance. 
 
 These winged ants, issuing from darkness, born 
 under ground, appear to have some presage of 
 their future destiny. They are anxious and rest- 
 less, searching for an issue to the light, blue sky, 
 and wide open space that they feel must exist. 
 They take but little interest in what passes around 
 them ; their hopes direct them to another life. 
 
60 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 How much to be pitied would they be were they 
 endowed with such instincts in human society ! 
 
 People would say to them, "Why do you 
 weary us with your senseless desires, your wishes, 
 your doubts, and compel us to think of a lot of 
 things we have nothing to do with ? Submit to 
 the common lot of labour, and give up these 
 foolish fancies." 
 
 These are wise counsels, and yet what would 
 become of the ant-hill unless some of these winged 
 creatures were born there from time to time ? 
 What would society be did not some adventurous 
 and rash individuals occasionally quit the beaten 
 track that leads to security, and make excursions 
 over hill and dale at the risk of falling into a 
 quagmire ? The footpath is the predecessor of a 
 main road, and it is very necessary for some one 
 first to trace it out if one is not to go for ever 
 in one unvarying circle. I think- 
 But what events are passing in our under- 
 ground city ? The winged ants, in ever-increasing 
 numbers, advance in crowds towards the different 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 61 
 
 exits, endeavouring to escape from the ant-hill. 
 The workers resist, clinging to them, and en- 
 deavouring to retain them by force. It seems as 
 if every grain of sand were changed into a living 
 black mass, and to join in the struggle. Nothing 
 can be seen in the dim light but bodies entangled, 
 heads armed with mandibles, and the glancing of 
 
 transparent wings. The disturbance extends, be- 
 comes general, and ascends to the surface of the 
 ground. 
 
 Beautiful and poetical allegories have been 
 made about this annual departure, with all its 
 touching varied incidents. 
 
62 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 Often has it been said, "Do not these winged 
 airy beings, so eager to be independent, and desirous 
 of pleasure, represent joyous and thoughtless youth ? 
 And are not these workers, faithful and devoted, 
 taught so much by pain and labour, the living re- 
 presentation of experience and good sense ? Trem- 
 bling for those they love, they would still detain 
 them, provide them against impending danger, and 
 show them that together with liberty arises indi- 
 vidual responsibility, increasing in like proportion. 
 They are no longer listened to ; the flood swells, 
 rises, and will soon burst the dykes." 
 
 This idea is elegant, but not correct. If the 
 neuter ants are full of sense, they have not the 
 futile wisdom of the schoolmaster in La Fontaine, 
 who made a long discourse to the drowning boy 
 instead of lending him a helping hand. They 
 understand the impatient burning desires of their 
 winged companions, and only temporarily oppose 
 their migration in order to ensure its success. If 
 a ray of the sun appears, a clear warm sky, or 
 a fine day, the barriers are removed, the gates 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
64 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 opened, and the whole band impatiently rising at 
 once, fly in clouds into the air. 
 
 Our ants have obtained their freedom, and 
 wander joyfully in space. Does not the young 
 girl at her first ball feel as if she were in ethereal 
 realms of poetry ? Does slie wish to know what 
 happens to the insect, small though it be, attired 
 like her for the great summer season ? 
 
 The ants flit backwards and forwards, charmed 
 with their emancipation, and happy in the act of 
 living. Each seeks for one to love, and thus they 
 meet at last in a blaze of light beneath the blue 
 sky, amid the harmony of nature. Then they stop 
 in their rapid flight, shake their wings, and 
 find them useless. Of what further service would 
 they be except to fly from happiness ? A bride, 
 a wife, a mother, must dream no longer ! such is 
 our ant's opinion ! 
 
 Why should they have wrings when stationary 
 for ever ? Our insects resolutely make the sacrifice, 
 and tear them off by waving them, so as to weaken 
 the muscles which unite them to the corselet, and 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 65 
 
 inching them off with their legs. Thus they are 
 uin upon the ground, walking with difficulty 
 amoW the leaves, and prepared to struggle with 
 the realities of life. 
 
 While they had wings their only thought was 
 pleasure. Their duties on touching the earth 
 become higher, nobler, and purer ; they have to 
 perpetuate their race. 
 
 If their wayward flight has not led them too 
 far from their native ant-hill, the workers at once 
 Assemble round them, to cherish, protect, and con- 
 duct them back to the galleries, where they be- 
 come real objects of worship, for maternity makes 
 them sacred. They are 'overwhelmed with atten- 
 tions, and even carried from one place to another. 
 The body of tlie female is hooked up and sus- 
 pended from the mandibles of her bearer, and 
 rolled like a butterfly's trunk. It is twiisted so 
 well under the corselet of the worker as 'not to 
 inconvenience its motions. At times they think 
 it enough to drag her ; but if the ant entrusted 
 with this burthen becomes weary, another takes 
 
 F 
 
C6 SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 
 
 the place, and the moment she is thus laid down 
 the female is surrounded by her court, all showing 
 their affection. The eggs as soon as produced 
 are gathered and brought together round the 
 mother. 
 
 Such is the lot of the most fortunate ; but 
 the wind bears others far away from their native 
 spot, and they find they are left to their own 
 resources ; but, stimulated by maternal affection, 
 they do not recoil from the arduous task imposed 
 on them. Alone, without helpers, they make 
 abodes for themselves, lay their eggs, then watch 
 over them, and bring up the larvae. 
 
 The attachment of worker ants for their females 
 appears to extend beyond their existence. When a 
 mother dies, five or six of her followers remain 
 near her, brush or lick her without ceasing for 
 several days, and seem as if they wished to raise 
 her again to life by thus attending on her. 
 
 Such was the political economy of the society 
 of black ants established at the foot of our great 
 Pear-Tree. We have seen how they construct their 
 
SUBTERRANEAN CITIES. 67 
 
 habitations, bring up their families, and perpetuate 
 their race. 
 
 To complete this study and make it more in- 
 teresting, we will collect in a subsequent chapter 
 some details on other tribes of ants, whose works 
 are most curious. Some of them too live in my 
 meadow, and their habits bring them likewise 
 round the great tree. Thence arise terrible com- 
 bats, bloody encounters, and fields covered with 
 dead and wounded. What a strange business it 
 is ! At times the ants themselves declare war 
 upon one another, for it is not the nations of mer 
 alone who have their victories or suffer defeats. 
 
 F 2 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN EXCURSION INTO THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD. 
 
 .ONE fine summer day when I was just sixteen, 
 I took ifc into my head to produce a masterpiece. 
 Sixteen is the era of such plans ; but they are 
 more easily conceived than executed, although 
 they may be fair in the germ. They generally 
 come into the world with such grave faults of 
 construction, that they are at last found to be 
 hardly substantial enough to arrive at full age. 
 At any rate I seized my pen at once, for I had 
 no doubts of myself nor of others, and I wrote 
 a very fanciful poem, in which all created beings 
 flung themselves into a Bacchanalian ecstasy. In 
 it I represented the animals holding festival and 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD. 69 
 
 frolic, dancing and gambolling from morning to 
 night, and man among them all, their master and 
 their king, the only worker, weary with the noise 
 of their everlasting merriment. 
 
 The moral to be deduced from such an idea 
 can be easily perceived. On the one hand, life 
 
 but for a day, joys of a moment, fleeting plea- 
 sures soon interrupted by death ; on the other, 
 deep meditation, consideration for the future, 
 heroic sacrifices, indefinite perfectibility .purchased 
 at the price of great sufferings. 
 
 I had just put the finishing stroke to my 
 
70 AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 composition, and it had assumed a sufficiently 
 presentable shape, with the slight drawbacks of 
 a few bad rhymes, a few halting lines, several 
 inflated passages in bad taste, a great many re- 
 dundant adjectives, and a thousand more details 
 neglected in the manufacture, when I all at once 
 perceived that the beasts these poor beasts whom 
 I had so maligned themselves too had to undergo 
 severe labour, and were obliged to toil as wearily 
 for their livelihood as ourselves. 
 
 First, the mole, a prudent creature notwith- 
 standing her supposed blindness, showed me that 
 she had to burrow in the earth to find her food. 
 Then I remembered that the beaver is a clever 
 engineer, and that the spider has nothing to learn 
 from our weavers. Besides, I called to mind the 
 green woodpecker, that has to pierce the trees 
 with hundreds of blows of its beak before it can 
 obtain its food ; and I deliberated with fear on 
 the quantity of kicks, bites, and blows endured 
 by an individual of the feline race before the 
 close of her existence. 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD. 71 
 
 Certainly I Lad set out on a wrong track, and 
 was just about to make myself very ridiculous 
 with a foolish poem under my arm. Yet let it 
 not be supposed that I was totally discouraged by 
 this discovery. At sixteen one is not cast down 
 by such a trifle, and my resolution was soon 
 taken. I instantly commenced another wurk, not 
 less remarkable than the first, in which I showed 
 that man, far from being superior to the other 
 animals, owes to them all his inventions. 
 
 I did not then know my meadow ; or what a 
 likeness could I have traced between the black 
 or tawny ants contending for the hunting-grounds, 
 of which my old Pear-Tree forms the centre, and 
 certain tribes of Indians ! 
 
 Lonely expeditions in the forest, the -discovery 
 of a trail, attacks, surprises, prudent retreats, 
 furious combats, capture of prisoners what ad- 
 ventures to describe ! Happily for the reader I 
 am past sixteen, and will go straight to my facts 
 
 The tawny ants are divided into two great 
 nations, distinguished by their colour, which is 
 
72 AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 in greater or less proportions of black or red. 
 The first inhabit by choice the large woods, and 
 make their home among the fern ; the others 
 establish themselves in hedges and meadows. 
 Otherwise their habits are almost alike. 
 
 The dwellings of these ants are, composed 
 of pieces of stubble, morsels of wood, pebbles, 
 half broken shells, and of all substances of easy 
 transport that they can lay their hands on. 
 They even pick up grains of wheat, barley, and 
 oats as building material, and this has given the 
 notion of their making magazines of provisions 
 for winter use. Their architects are very skilful, 
 and invest their city with the form of a little 
 mountain or dome, with buttresses above the 
 ground so that the rain-water may the easier 
 run off, and not cause irreparable ravages. Our 
 insects are prudent, and wish to protect themselves 
 from over-sudden changes of temperature. The 
 greatest portion of the nest is hidden, and extends 
 more or less deeply Tindtr ground. Avenues, of 
 funnel shape but irregular, lead from the top of 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD. 73 
 
 the building to the interior. In number they are 
 proportioned to the population of the colony, and 
 they are also larger or smaller at their opening. 
 Occasionally a great street, the central artery of 
 daily movement, passes from one end to the other 
 of the hill ; many roads, of nearly equal size are 
 often found there, and narrow passages all around 
 them conducting to the different quarters- of the- 
 city. 
 
 Light is agreeable to the tawny ants,, and they 
 care not for the presence of man. They run 
 about all day if the sky is clear, and go home- 
 at the approach of bad weather, or at nightfall. 
 They may then be seen carrying little stakes, 
 which they plant in the rampart of chaff in 
 order to close up the entrances of their galleries, 
 after which they fetch some more smaller ones, 
 which they place crosswise against the first. The 
 barricades thus formed are strengthened with a 
 
 o 
 
 covering of dry leaves, and the ants are at home. 
 As soon as the city gates are shut sentries are 
 placed there to watch over the general security, 
 
74 
 
 AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 and the rest of the tribe take their repose. 
 When dawn returns animation recommences ; ' the 
 sentries are relieved, the galleries re-opened, and 
 
 the general thoroughfares restored. These works 
 are done regularly morning and evening through the 
 summer season, unless it is decidedly rainy weather. 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS W 
 
 In this case the inhabitants of the ant-hill do 
 not pursue their usual course, and their doors 
 remain closed. 
 
 Such is the nature of the city of the tawny 
 ants ; let us see how they proceed in constructing 
 it. Their builders are at work, and do not take 
 any further notice of us than if we were not 
 lords of creation ! The word is given. They 
 have a consultation, and begin by excavating in 
 the earth a smaller or larger cavity. Some of the 
 ever-industrious workers go to seek materials in 
 the vicinity fit for the construction of the ex- 
 terior works, and arrange them, not indeed with 
 symmetry, but with care to .defend the entrance 
 of their future habitation. Others bring portions 
 of the earth that they have dug up in making 
 the excavation before spoken of, combine them 
 with the materials already laid, and take pains 
 to fill the spaces and make the -building strong. 
 To judge from the outside one would think that 
 it was a solid mass, but we know that it is not 
 so. The interior is gradually hollowed, and soon 
 
76 AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 divided into several stages, and penetrated by 
 galleries which, though low and rudely constructed 
 perfectly fulfil their object of serving as a place 
 of security for the larvae and nymphse. By 
 degrees a large hall of magnificent proportions 
 is raised in the centre of the city. It is much 
 larger than the other chambers, and the ceiling 
 is sustained by great beams curiously supporting 
 one another. All the galleries lead to it, and the 
 popular assemblies are there held. 
 
 Another tribe of ants, the soldier or sanguine, 
 are much like the tawny ants ; the heads and 
 antennae of the neuters are of a tawny red, their 
 abdomen ash-coloured black. Their habitations are 
 composed of earth mixed with bits of leaves, blades 
 of grass, moss, and little stones, and are generally 
 found in hedges lying towards the south. They 
 present this remarkable fact to be observed, that 
 living side by side with the proper sanguine popu- 
 lation is another of helots or slaves, condemned 
 to the more laborious tasks. It is a mixed 
 society, rendered very formidable to its neigh- 
 
THE HYMEXOPTEROUS WORLD. 77 
 
 bours by its military organization, and whose 
 warriors have acquired much fame in the world 
 of hymenoptera by their impetuous valour. 
 
 Behold them making a foray traversing any 
 great hollows in the ground, with mandibles raised 
 on high, and glaring eyes, seeking their enemies ! 
 Suddenly they perceive some forms of ash-coloured 
 black, from a colony not far from- them. 
 
 This colony is of the humblest sort, for the 
 population who have formed it only possess one 
 simple and rude ark. They excavated the ground, 
 and, bringing it grain by grain, formed a vault 
 and covered the gate of the city. Then under 
 the vault the workers made trenches at different 
 distances, and of a nearly equal depth. The 
 rampart of earth between them is treated with 
 care to serve as a support for the walls and par- 
 titions of the abodes. It is not very fine archi- 
 tecture, but what can a wretched insect do with 
 no chisel save its teeth, or compasses save its an- 
 tennoe, or any other trowel than its fore-feet \ 
 
 Poor and humble as it is, this ant-hill is 
 
78 AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 observed by the soldiers, and having held a council 
 of war, they determine to lay siege thereto. Some 
 warriors, full of warlike ardour, advance at once 
 to the camp of the ash-coloured blacks or negroes, 
 and spread themselves around the entrance. Imme- 
 diately the inhabitants of the menaced community 
 are in great anxiety. They rush into their galleries 
 to give the alarm, and advance in numbers, bravely 
 rushing upon the intruders. An engagement 
 ensues, and some over-venturesome sanguines are 
 overwhelmed by numbers and carried into cap- 
 tivity. Their companions are contented with 
 defending their positions. Calm and confident in 
 the success of their arms, they await reinforce- 
 ments. Every moment small bands of their own 
 party come to join and increase their numbers. 
 By degrees they approach the camp of the 
 negroes, and seem more willing to come to close 
 quarters ; but the more they mingle with the 
 besieged, the more they seem in haste to send 
 couriers to their own nest. These last arrive in 
 haste, deliver their message, give orders, and at 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD. 79 
 
 once a new swarm starts to join the army. Yet 
 the sanguines do not hasten to give battle, and 
 only alarm the negroes by keeping their ground. 
 The latter occupy a space of two square feet in 
 front of their ant-hill ; the greater part of the 
 nation has come forth to take part in the 
 struggle. Around the parallels of attack are now 
 to be seen individual conflicts,- and generally it 
 is the besieged who attack the besiegers. A 
 vigorous defenee might be expected, from the 
 great numbers of the negroes, but they are not 
 confident in their forces, and are oppressed by the 
 thought of the Burslings confided to them, and of 
 the methods of securing their republic from entire 
 destruction. 
 
 Long before the issue of the contest can be 
 foreseen they may be observed carrying their 
 larvae out of the caves, and heaping them lap at 
 the side opposite to that assaulted. Thus they can 
 more easily convey them off if r contrary to all ex- 
 pectation, victory does not favour the right ! The 
 young females also hurry in the same direction. 
 
80 AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 It is only just in time, for the storm draws 
 near, and the thunder will soon break in the 
 midst of this terrified population. The soldiers, 
 now in force, throw themselves on the enemy, 
 attack them at all points, and even reach the 
 dome of the city. The negroes, after a deter- 
 mined conflict, give up the defence, arid, seizing 
 the nymphse they had heaped together outside the 
 ant-hill, raise them in their mandibles, and run 
 off in all directions. The soldiers pursue them, 
 and endeavour to carry off the treasure. In the 
 midst of the -defeat some blacks with admirable 
 devotion still resist, strive to penetrate into the 
 low passages to convey off some larvae from 
 thence, and are at least secure of the honour 
 of perishing on the field of battle. 
 
 Alas ! there is a moment when heroism 
 becomes madness. The city is given over to be 
 pillaged. The soldiers run all over it, seize 
 the whole of the avenues, and seem as if they 
 would take possession of the devastated nest. 
 Dividing into squadrons, they proceed to carry 
 
THE HYME^OPTEROUS WORLD. 81 
 
 off any larvae and nymphse that may have been 
 loft behind. They establish a continuous chain 
 from one habitation to the other, and employ 
 the rest of the day in housing their plunder. 
 At nightfall, when of necessity the work must 
 cease, all is not yet under cover. This is pro- 
 vided for ; a post of sanguines keeps watch in 
 the city taken by assault to keep off other 
 depredators. 
 
 Next day at dawn they begin again to bear 
 off their prey ; while the vanquished nation, 
 resigned to their fate, found a new colony 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Every year these sanguine ants make five or 
 six such expeditions to provide themselves with 
 slaves and assistants. Born for fighting, they 
 understand no domestic labours. It is their 
 slaves to whom is entrusted the task of con- 
 structing their galleries, of tending the larvae 
 and nymphae, and of all the little labours of 
 their common life. The negroes which have 
 become captives have no idea of escaping from 
 
 G 
 
82 AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 their conquerors. They receive them with delight 
 as they come home from their hunting expeditions, 
 and devote themselves to their service with un- 
 alloyed zeal. 
 
 Really, is not all this very strange? What! 
 can miserable insects speak of their campaigns, 
 recount their wounds, and boast of their ex- 
 
THE HYM.ENOPTEHOUS WORLD. 83 
 
 ploits ? Doubtless ! but our self-love need not 
 take offence : they have not yet invented any 
 needle-gun nor improved rifled cannon. Besides, 
 they only fight when necessary, and do not know 
 how to enjoy a triumph. We are more advanced 
 in that way, thanks to our civilization ; not only 
 do we fight when compelled by circumstances, 
 but also for glory, the honour of the flag, and 
 the pleasure of conquest. Indeed, as chronicles 
 say, we often take up arms without knowing 
 why, without even asking why. Such facts are 
 enough to insure to us an unquestioned supe- 
 riority over the wretched ants. 
 
 The nation of sanguines not only owns slaves, 
 but also breeds numerous herds. It is true that 
 their cattle are not much like ours. They are 
 of all colours, green, white, bronze, or pearl grey. 
 Many browse peacefully on the old Pear-Tree, and 
 they are as brown as if dipped in coffee. They are 
 small insects, having six slender little feet. At 
 the end of their solid potbellied bodies are found 
 two tubes, terminated by a kind of mouth. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 AX EXCURSION INTO 
 
 Some of those insects have wings, and all have 
 two long horns bent over their backs, and are 
 fed by means of a trunk that they insert 
 into vegetable tissues. 
 
 Is not this description very plain, like all 
 other descriptions ? In case the reader cannot 
 
 find the answer to the riddle (which would be 
 no surprise to us), we will make haste to explain 
 it. The milch-cows of the ants are no other 
 than plant-lice (aphides). 
 
 Who has not seen them encircling flower 
 stems, slipping under the bark of trees, assem- 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD, 85 
 
 bling on the foot-stalk of leaves, in a hideous 
 mass side by side, motionless, apparently almost 
 inert, leaving round them sweet, sticky spots? The 
 ants are very fond of this honey, which passes 
 from two tubes we have described as adorning 
 the bodies of the plant-lice. They climb to the 
 highest branches to gather it, and force the 
 insect that produces it to deliver it up to them 
 by striking it with their antennae. The dark 
 ants especially, and some other species, have 
 recourse to this curious proceeding in order to 
 obtain food. A few draughts are enough to 
 satisfy them. The red ant dexterously seizes the 
 little drop of liquor with the swollen extremity 
 of the antennse, which she carries to her mouth, 
 using these organs as though they really were 
 fingers. 
 
 The yellow ants, who hardly ever leave their 
 underground dwellings, are always surrounded by 
 a great number of plant-lice. Other species, at 
 once more ingenious and more prudent, build 
 special habitations for them, and collect them 
 
86 AX EXCURSION INTO 
 
 there. These houses are in different shapes. 
 Sometimes they are like a sphere, with the stalk 
 of a plant for its axis, and the lower part 
 pierced with a very small hole. In other cases, 
 when made by the red ants, they are composed 
 of a pipe about two inches and a half long and 
 nearly as large across. M. Huber, to whom we 
 owe so many interesting observations on ants, 
 found one of these cases intended for their 
 cattle raised, five feet from the ground on a 
 small branch of a poplar, just as it sprung from 
 the trunk. It was composed of rotten wood, 
 and consisted of a short blackish tube. The 
 ants entered it from the inside of the tree by 
 several excavations, and crept in through an 
 opening made at the root of the branch without 
 exposing themselves to the daylight. 
 
 The plant-lice of the common plantain retire 
 under the root leaves when the stem dries up. 
 The ants follow them there, and shut themselves 
 up with them by filling with moist earth all the 
 intervals between the ground arid the edge of 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD. 87 
 
 the leaves. Then excavating the soil beneath, 
 they obtain more space for approaching the 
 
 prisoners, and arrange galleries leading to their 
 own dwelling. 
 
 These works are not useless, for they secure 
 them victuals for rainy days. Indeed the ants 
 
SS AN EXCURSION INTO 
 
 do not become torpid at less than two degrees 
 below freezing, and when it is not cold their 
 activity is not checked. At such times they 
 would be in danger of perishing without especial 
 resources. The plant-lice furnish what they want, 
 and a most extraordinary fact they become 
 torpid at the same temperature as their guardians, 
 and awake from their lethargy at the same time 
 as they do. The kinds of ants that have not 
 the instinct of appropriating them to themselves 
 at least know the spots where they are in hiding, 
 and bring back to their companions the small 
 quantity of honey they have gathered from them. 
 They charitably distribute these liquid juices, 
 whose evaporation is very slow, indeed almost 
 insensible. 
 
 The preservation of plant-lice is of so much 
 importance to the ants that they even go and 
 collect the eggs of these insects. This M. Huber 
 has absolutely observed the yellow ants doing. 
 They gather and guard these eggs, lick them conti- 
 nually, cover them with a gluten that fastens them 
 
THE HYMENOPTEROUS WORLD. 80 
 
 together, and, in short, perform all the cares 
 necessary for their welfare. They perform this 
 task so well that the precious germs bear fruit 
 inside the ant-hill as well as in their natural 
 position. 
 
 Could one belie ve that a solitude is so replete 
 with life without having studied the mysteries 
 of a tuft of grass ? 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 WHILE the labours of the ants were taking 
 up my whole attention, the wind had gradually 
 risen ; it bent the flexible stems of grass, and 
 made them glitter in the sun like ribands of 
 crystal with dazzling lustre. The aspect of 
 the meadow changed, and my thoughts insensibly 
 took another course. I ceased to observe what 
 passed around me, to listen to the rustle of the 
 grass, the buzzing of insects, and the thou- 
 sand noises resounding through space, coming 
 from no one knows where, rising, increasing^ 
 and diminishing, and all blending together in an 
 indefinable harmony. 
 
WANDERING TRIBES. 91 
 
 Some twigs of the old Pear-Tree were put slightly 
 in motion, stretching their long pale green stems 
 against the cloudy background of the sky; soon 
 the young leaves began to flap, making gleams 
 of reflecting light around ; then all were shaken 
 at once, producing a heavy and prolonged sound 
 like the distant echo of a church organ. One of 
 them all at once was broken off from the branch 
 it grew upon, was lifted and whirled about in 
 the air, wandered for some time round my head, 
 and at last fell near me on a tuft of wormwood 
 reflecting pale silvery light. Its foot-stalk had 
 been eaten away by some insect, and this had 
 occasioned its fall before the early chills of 
 autumn. On the outer side between two veins 
 lay a ' sort of sheath of a brown colour and 
 quite dried up. All round this sheath, too skil- 
 fully constructed not to be a habitation, extended 
 a white discoloured spot, making a marked inroad 
 on the rest of the leaf, still green and fleshy. 
 
 This sheath excited my curiosity, and I soon 
 discovered the use of it. It served as a shelter 
 
92 WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 to a little caterpillar belonging to the numerous 
 and powerful family of Tinese. 
 
 This little caterpillar, though common, is never- 
 theless not easy to find. Like the Arab shepherds, 
 it bears along with it a light tent, often changing 
 its residence quits the realms of dearth and moves 
 to those where food is abundant. Its tent is the 
 sheath that protects its frail and delicate body 
 from the attacks of its enemies ; the territory 
 it roams over is a light leaf waving in the least 
 breeze. Behold it, after one moment's astonish- 
 ment at the aerial flight just performed, advancing 
 with head down and tail in the air, all the time 
 enclosed in. the sheath. At length it pauses, 
 makes a slight cut in the leaf, and sliding between 
 the two pellicles that form its surfaces, devours 
 their contents. When all within reach is con- 
 sumed, and it appears that no more nourishment 
 can be obtained without entirely coming out of 
 the sheath, it again sets out on its travels, 
 again takes up a fresh position, and repeats the 
 same manoeuvres. 
 
 I 
 
WANDERING TRIBES. 93 
 
 These sheaths are found not only on the pear 
 but also on the elm, the alder, and on some other 
 trees. When the constructors, who, though they 
 are all of the same family, have different tastes, 
 use notched leaves, they dispose the notches in 
 such a way as to give the most curious appearance 
 to their habitations. Their tent strongly resembles 
 
 a miniature brown fi^fo, placed upright, and showing 
 the profile of its long dorsal fin like a saw. 
 
 If the Tineee are pulled out of their garment, 
 they display the greatest distress, and set to 
 work at once to make a new covering. They 
 begin by passing the head between the two mem- 
 branes of a leaf and lodge in its thickness. 
 There they are under cover, and only have to 
 cut out their coat. This must be made of two 
 
94 
 
 WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 similar pieces united above and below them. The 
 two pellicles that they have separated make the 
 cloth. They know their trade ; they cut to right 
 and left with their mandibles, 
 which make an excellent pair 
 of scissors, and join the two 
 pieces as they lie one above 
 the other with threads of 
 silk. These garments always 
 fit their owners, and are 
 sometimes very elegant. An 
 old Tinea near its transform- 
 ation will never muffle itself 
 up like a young caterpillar 
 on its first campaign. How 
 many old beaux, decking 
 their mature age in a vernal 
 scabbard, should be sent to the school of the 
 Tinese! How many tailors, not to say dress- 
 makers, would do well to be apprenticed for 
 some time on my great Pear-Tree, and study 
 there the true principles of their art ! 
 
WANDERING TRIBES. 9'5 
 
 Indeed the always tasteful toilet of the insects 
 
 is admirably adapted to their habits, and ar- 
 ranged for their individual peculiarities and 
 
9G WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 makes a complete finish to them, and sets them 
 off in a most curious way. Have our workmen 
 any such artistic ideas ? The tinsel robes in 
 which they muffle us, cut in one pattern, on 
 pretext of fashion, have not in a general way 
 the least relation to our peculiarities. 
 
 Let us pursue the Tinea of the elm through 
 her various transformations. Here she is escaping 
 from her shell, no longer as a caterpillar, but 
 provided with antennae, ready to take her flight 
 as a perfect insect. Her wings glisten with gold 
 and silver, and at their points small spots of 
 velvety black set off to greater advantage the 
 metallic lustre. Another variety which lives on 
 the leaves of the nut-tree has its fore wings like 
 a cock's tail, and banded transversely with 
 alternate stripes of dead gold and burnished 
 silver. Two little fine and delicate white tufts 
 adorn their heads with splendid plumes. Had 
 King Solomon in all his glory, when going to 
 meet the Queen of Sheba, richer and more sump- 
 tuous vestments than these ? 
 
WANDERING TRIBES. 97 
 
 Large animals are coarsely sketched by 
 Nature, while she seems to have reserved the 
 choicest gems of her rich cabinet for the smaller. 
 Like those artists of the Middle Ages who delighted 
 to carve numberless little figures between two 
 blocks of stone and place them too high up to 
 be seen, she reserves her special care for the 
 minutest details of the great work. The bodies 
 of most caterpillars present such a mixture of 
 marvellously shaded colours, that the most skilful 
 weaver could never reproduce such delicate com- 
 binations. These shapeless worms crawling on 
 the ground, and almost always hidden, have most 
 splendid decorations. Some are marked with 
 dots of divers hues, and a variety of spots ; 
 others have stripes, diamonds, and bands of all 
 sizes. Sometimes these markings give place to 
 little tubercles projecting from the skin like so 
 many precious stones. "Who has not seen sv arms 
 of insects rise and sparkle in the sun, copper- 
 plated, engraved, and enamelled in the most 
 fantastic manner ? Could we ever be able to 
 
 H 
 
98 WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 possess such a picture ? Besides, how should we 
 get the silk which is our pride of adornment 
 without robbing a humble larva of the soft 
 envelope in which she has concealed herself? 
 
 . Some varieties of Tinese are more ambitious 
 than those that inhabit our old Pear-Tree, and are 
 in the habit of making themselves more solid and 
 durable cases. They live on walls, feeding on 
 lichen, and gather small stones around them to 
 build little cornucopia-shaped cells, large at one 
 end and tapering towards the other. When ready 
 to change into chrysalides, they firmly fix their 
 house to the surface of the wall where they were 
 born, there undergo their transformation, and issue 
 at length, proudly displaying to the light of day 
 two little bronzed and sparkling wings. 
 
 But the life of caterpillars is not all rose- 
 coloured, and all who have the will do not attain 
 to the winged state. Some are left behind on 
 the way, and might justly deplore their hard 
 fate ! Not only do birds wage ceaseless war upon 
 them, but they have also a formidable enemy, 
 

 WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 who glides into the thickest brakes, between the 
 tree and its bark, among tufts of grass, wherever 
 they hide, and prepares for them a shocking 
 death, preceded by most bitter pangs. They 
 dread his approach, perceive his coming, shudder 
 at the sight of him, and yet cannot escape his 
 terrible power. There he is, flitting above them 
 like a vampire, grazing them with his gauze 
 wings, for such he has, and searching for the 
 spot where to alight on their soft defenceless 
 body. The bark of our old Pear-Tree is 
 covered with these deadly foes, and we can easily 
 observe them there actively coursing in all di- 
 rections. 
 
 This formidable insect, the sound of whose 
 wings is the death -knell of numbers of lepi- 
 doptera, is shaped like a long thin fly, with small 
 head and very slender antennae. It has four 
 wings attached to the corselet, the two upper ones 
 the longest. It has six tolerably long legs, 
 especially the hinder ones. The body is lengthy, 
 and only joined to the thorax by a very fine thread. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 WANDERING TKIBES. 
 
 It is known by the sufficiently crabbed name of 
 Ichneumon. 
 
 There are a vast number of species, and all 
 carnivorous, but with notable differences in their 
 customs. Some are black with ferruginous legs ; 
 others have tawny feet and short tails ; some 
 varieties are speckled ; others are found with 
 black heads and yellow stomachs ; brown, tawny, 
 variegated, and white ones are also met with. 
 Their females seem to bear three stings of equal 
 length, but really have only one, that in the 
 middle, the two lateral appendages being only 
 hollow blades, that when applied together form 
 a sheath for the true sting. This sheath is 
 black and hairy. The dart it covers is round, 
 stiff pointed, hollow, and pierced near the ex- 
 tremity. Its dark colour inclines to chestnut, 
 and its surface is smooth. 
 
 Now we know the actors in the drama, let 
 us place them on the stage. 
 
 And indeed as we look on the Pear-Tree we 
 perceive, with its body adhering to one of the 
 
WANDERING 
 
 branches, a very common hairy caterpillar, with 
 blue, brown, and white stripes on its back.* The 
 head is of a greenish blue, specked with two 
 small black spots. It is motionless, being gorged 
 with leaves, and is, besides, on the point of 
 spinning its cocoon. 
 
 This is one of the usual victims of the yellow- 
 footed Ichneumon. 
 
 When she discovers it she descends on it, 
 clings to the skin, and bores it with her auger. 
 In vain does the caterpillar struggle ; however 
 energetic is the resistance, it is thenceforward 
 condemned, and nothing can save it from death. 
 
 * The lackey. 
 
102 WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 The wound just inflicted is filled with a number 
 of eggs, and from them will issue as many 
 voracious larvae, destined to live at its cost and 
 feed upon its substance. At first it appears not 
 to suspect its condition, and its habits seem 
 unchanged. The young larvae that devour it are 
 very careful not to attack the vital organs, as 
 that would kill it outright and imperil their own 
 existence. It was only man who, in conse- 
 quence of his superior intelligence, ever thought 
 of killing the goose with the golden eggs ! Our 
 young Ichneumons, born at the foot of the ladder 
 of existence, are too stupid to imagine such an 
 idea. They act prudently, take care of their 
 nurse, and only remove a fatty substance sufficient 
 for their wants, of which she possesses abundance. 
 Yet a time arrives when the caterpillar, though 
 so long spared, must perish at last. The larvae 
 having preyed upon it till nothing is left but 
 skin, pierce it with their teeth, and issue forth 
 to make their final change. Their victim may 
 then be seen covered with little cocoons of 
 
WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 103 
 
 yellow silk, moving tardily about, till at last 
 he falls on the ground, and there his miserable 
 existence terminates. 
 
 Yet occasionally his enemies allow him time 
 to turn into a chrysalis, but still the conclusion 
 
 
 of the drama is always the same. Innumerable 
 worms issue from the chrysalis, and covering it 
 with their cocoons, a brood of flies issue from 
 their lepidopterous cradle. 
 
 As we have before said, the race of Ichneumons 
 is very numerous, and we ought to be thankful 
 
104 WANDERING TRIBES. 
 
 for it, for without their presence all the fruits of 
 the earth would be devoured before reaching our 
 tables. Besides making war on caterpillars, they 
 even sometimes lay their microscopic germs in the 
 egg of a butterfly, and their tiny larvae find 
 board and lodging there. They only exist by 
 means of destruction, and rise alive from the 
 bosom of decomposition. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 NOTES OF THE TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 
 
 A GREAT cloud, fully 'charged with electricity 
 was forming on the horizon. It rose by degrees, 
 mingling its grey tones with the blue of the sky, 
 and at last extended all over my meadow. The 
 irregular shadow covered the grass, and only 
 allowed one feeble sunbeam to pass, and that 
 struck upon a ridge of bark on the surface of the 
 old Pear-Tree. 
 
 Something was moving on this spot, which 
 was now in the full light. There might be seeD 
 a black head, round and very flat, with two bent 
 antennae issuing from it. The motions of the 
 
106 NOTES OF THE 
 
 creature were full of anxiety and indecision. It 
 was coming up, going down again, was lost sight 
 of for a moment, then reappeared, and seemed in 
 great perplexity, until at last it issued completely 
 from its hiding-place and crawled down the tree, 
 dragging after it a kind of tawny ribbon, that 
 slipped over the asperities of the bark like a 
 trail of syrup. This tawny ribbon, on which, by 
 closer inspection, I saw a number of articulations, 
 was nothing else than the body of an animal 
 borne on thirty little legs, trotting mincingly 
 along, and each terminated by a hook. The 
 last pair were turned upwards, terminating in 
 bristles, so as to form a forked tail. 
 
 Head, body, and tail, when they reached the 
 ground, began by one consent to wriggle, forming 
 a creature of no good report, the Scolopendra or 
 Centipede.* It is generally found under stones, 
 in dark places, at the base of walls, among the 
 fibre of old stumps, wherever the air is 
 tainted, dark, and heavy. The powerful loco- 
 
 * This is the large species, which is happily not to be found in England. 
 
TllAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 
 
 107 
 
108 NOTES OF THE 
 
 motive apparatus that is its characteristic is only 
 acquired by age. Successive additions compose 
 its being, and each of its rings is equivalent to a 
 mark of antiquity. 
 
 Just as the Scolopendra made its appearance 
 on the meadow, a swarm of little insects, hardly 
 to be seen by very good eyes, but whose curious 
 structure I could easily distinguish, thanks to 
 the second sight that I enjoyed, were jumping 
 among the grass from stalk to stalk, with 
 wonderful agility. They might have been taken 
 for a band of squirrels, lost in a grassy forest, 
 making it alive with their incessant activity. 
 They had on their backs a sort of mane, bore two 
 antennae bent forwards, and sprang from one 
 place to another by means of a long elastic tail 
 that they pressed upon the ground at the moment 
 of making their spring. They were the Poduras 
 (Skip tails), an especially cosmopolitan race, who 
 plant their colonies in the fields, and even on the 
 surface of stagnant water, and also on the snow 
 in the coldest regions of the globe. 
 
TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 109 
 
 They described around me numberless ca- 
 pricious circuits, when one of them falling to the 
 ground, was all at once enveloped in a tawny 
 cloud, and disappeared under the grass. Another 
 and another suffered the same fate without their 
 absence being remarked by their comrades. The 
 Scolopendra was in ambush, and satiating itself 
 with its favourite food. 
 
 "Decidedly," thought I, "here is a tribute 
 quickly levied. If a man did as much, his 
 tongue would not be long enough to boast of his 
 exploits, and he would need to employ those of 
 others to trumpet his fame." 
 
 The Scolopendra thought otherwise. She left 
 her post of observation, climbing carelessly towards 
 a slope, stopped behind a pebble, resumed her 
 march, and arrived at a round hole dug in the 
 sand, not far from the lines of circumvallation 
 that had been traced by the mole-cricket. She 
 put her head into the hole, and quickly taking it 
 out again hastened to hide under a dry leaf 
 
 Her alarm was not without cause. A dull 
 
110 NOTES OF THE 
 
 sound was heard from the bottom of the sub- 
 terranean habitation that she had discovered, like 
 the distant murmuring of a fountain, giving notice 
 to all comers that if this retreat contained a 
 treasure, there was also a dragon to guard it. 
 
 The noise increased, and with it in proportion 
 grew my curiosity. Imagination is excited by the 
 approach of the unknown, under the continual 
 expectation of discovering a novelty. 
 
 In much excitement I said to myself, " What 
 am I going to see ? Nature is so rich, and my 
 knowledge is still so poor." 
 
 Nevertheless I rejoiced in my agitation, as it 
 promised me new discoveries. Nothing proves 
 ou>f imperfection so much as this necessity 6f 
 escaping from oneself, and mingling with the 
 life of others. The mind, like the body, requires 
 food. It is only nourished by successive assimi- 
 lations, starves when solitary, and dies of inani- 
 tion at the end of too strict a fast. 
 
 Thank Heaven that was not my case. I was 
 a fresh enough guest in my stall in Nature's 
 
TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 theatre, and patiently awaited the rising of the 
 curtain. 
 
 I had not long to wait. A dark object 
 suddenly appeared at the opening of the cave, 
 storming and buzzing in a most menacing fashion, 
 
 as if to complain of the mischief-maker that had 
 dared to cross the threshold. Then I saw, not a 
 dragon, but a great fly of the bee family. It 
 passed without the smallest concern over the 
 web of a little spider, which contented itself 
 with humbly pulling a string on its passage. 
 
112 NOTES OF THE 
 
 The Scolopendra was invisible, and not even 
 the tips of her antennae could be seen. 
 
 When the fly had made some circles in the 
 air, she returned to her nest, brushed her wings 
 with delight, threw out a few grains of sand 
 that had stuck between the ruddy bristles that 
 covered her body, and re-entered 'the house. She 
 went some distance along a narrow tubular gallery 
 with very smooth walls, and came to a sort of 
 lump made of earth glued together, separate from 
 the ground, pierced full of holes, and containing 
 a quantity of little chambers varnished inside 
 and very comfortable. In each of these chambers, 
 softly lying on a honey cake, was a whitish 
 worm, destined likewise to have wings and think 
 of perpetuating its species at a future day. 
 Sometimes another destiny, and not so happy, is 
 in store for them, since enemies in great num- 
 bers prowl around this well-concealed cell. Let 
 one ant make the discovery and a hundred others 
 follow in a row, attack the poor guardian bee, 
 and kill the larvae in the cradle. Their existence 
 
TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 113 
 
 is in imminent danger even before they issue from 
 the egg. A stranger fly, taking advantage of any 
 short absence of the brooding mother, slips into 
 the newly vacated place, leaves there her own 
 germ, and hastily escapes. The bee has seen 
 nothing, and lives deceived, without a suspicion 
 that she is harbouring a murderer, and that its 
 savage larva will soon be sole mistress of this 
 spacious abode made with so much labour. 
 
 Some of the congeners of our bee, less rustic 
 in their habits, prefer the neighbourhood of man. 
 They flit around his houses, and selecting a 
 wrought stone decide on hanging their habitation 
 there. And how shall they accomplish this design ? 
 They know not how to spin a cocoon like the 
 caterpillar, or make a web of silk like the spider. 
 It matters not ; they will not fail for want of 
 materials, for their resolution is great. The rest 
 they make will be of a kind of mortar, that as 
 it hardens will become as firm as granite. They 
 will go to the quarry, there select a grain of sand, 
 cover it with a viscous liquid, lay it close to 
 
 I 
 
U4 
 
 NOTES OF THE 
 
 another grain, make a little lump of them, take 
 this up in their mouths, knead it, put it in its 
 place, and gradually build their nest. 
 
 This nest, constructed with so much labour, is 
 divided into several compartments, all of the same 
 size, and each enclosing an egg, as well as the 
 
TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 115 
 
 paste required by the grub that is to be hatched 
 there. 
 
 The erection of such a building, wisely 
 adapted to the needs of the inhabitants, does 
 not fail to present some difficulty. Everybody 
 is not a born mason ; so some unscrupulous bees 
 sometimes endeavour to seize the property of 
 their neighbours. Without the slightest remorse 
 they enter a half-made cell, look it over, examine 
 it, give a stroke of the trowel, and prepare to 
 take possession of it. Then comes the real 
 owner laden with mortar, white with lime, in 
 working dress. They look at one another, and 
 doubtless remonstrances are exchanged ; then the 
 dispute waxes warmer, the two bees hurl defiance 
 at one another, rush out, and prepare to settle 
 their dispute by force of arms. 
 
 What description can do justice to the ani- 
 mated scene that ensues upon these first hos- 
 tilities ? Let us for a moment transport ourselves 
 from the old Pear-Tree to a vast arena where the 
 soil has been carefully levelled, and around which 
 
 i 2 
 
116 NOTES OF THE 
 
 are raised a quantity of seats, surmounted by 
 banners, shields, and pamans. Two knights in 
 full armour, with visors closed, lance in rest, 
 and shield on arm, mounted on powerful horses, 
 barbed likewise with iron, are ready to rush on 
 each other. The word is given, and they dart 
 forward enveloped in a cloud of dust. 
 
 A long shudder passes through the crowd. 
 Many hearts beat, impatient to ta,ke flight, and 
 go and burn themselves at this devouring flame 
 that attracts and maddens the masses. Success ! 
 Some souls of worth, more noble, more generous, 
 reserve their sympathy for the vanquished. Such 
 are scarce, very scarce, as scarce as charity, self- 
 denial, and devotion. 
 
TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 117 
 
 The two foemen have broken their lances, but 
 their swords remain. Steel meets with steel ; 
 the horses rear ; they seize each other round the 
 body, and the issue of the combat appears for 
 a moment doubtful. One of the combatants at 
 last rises in his saddle, gathers up his strength, 
 stretches his muscles, draws a deep breath, and 
 
 with a sudden movement, quick and vigorous, 
 throws the enemy on the ground amid the loud 
 applause of the multitude. 
 
 Is this a tournament I have described, or a 
 duel between two flies \ At all events, our bees 
 do just the same as the warriors of ancient time 
 
118 TRAVELS OF A CENTIPEDE. 
 
 fly against each other head to head, swerve aside 
 from each other, meet again, clash terribly to- 
 gether, and fall stunned by the shock. Like the 
 knights, if the first onset does not decide the 
 victory they clutch each other in fury, and even 
 strike with their dagger, namely, with their sting, 
 like them. 
 
 But we will not continue this humiliating 
 parallel. And what would it prove that every 
 one does not know already? When on the plain 
 the shepherd appears larger than his sheep, the 
 oak surpasses the shepherd, the tower of the 
 village church exceeds the oak. In proportion 
 to the elevation above the valley all these 
 gradations gradually disappear, the details merge 
 in the whole ; the landscape is lost in shade, 
 there are no more giants, and all is small to- 
 gether. 
 
 This is the reason why the Grecian muse, in 
 her choice of a dwelling-place, would not climb 
 too high, but stopped upon Parnassus. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 THE sky was clear again, the skiptails jumping 
 in the grass ; all was calm and peaceable in the 
 
 meadow, and yet the 
 Scolopendra did not 
 appear again. Why 
 did she not re-enter the 
 hall of bark after such 
 an exciting expedi- 
 tion ? Probably she 
 would have gladly 
 done so, but circum- 
 stances beyond her 
 coutiol made it impossible for her to return. 
 
120 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 She had been ejected because her abode was to 
 be demolished, and had been expelled by superior 
 force. 
 
 The inhabitants of a great city who are used 
 to live among a crowd, and to shift their house- 
 hold gods from one place to another, can never 
 believe what is the pain of quitting an old 
 nest ennobled by memory, and hallowed by custom. 
 There is the sense of leaving behind a whole 
 phase of existence on the removal. The old 
 home unites the past and present, henceforth to 
 be divided by an impassable barrier. Did the 
 Scolopendra feel all the bitterness of this flitting ? 
 I could not affirm this, but I am sure I 
 experienced it for her. I love old houses, full 
 of antique furniture, and showing everywhere the 
 traces of the departed. One is not alon6 amid 
 those grand walls that have been the cradle and 
 the tomb of a whole race. A tutelary genius, 
 the spirit of the family, watches in their shades, 
 low murmuring in the ear of the living a thou- 
 sand simple and touching words such as do them 
 
SOLITAR 
 
 good. This mysterious charm does not attach to 
 new mansions ; they remain dumb, and poetry 
 finds no echoes there. These are but hackneyed 
 hostels, good for nothing but transacting business. 
 
 We said that the Scolopendra had removed 
 that the house might be pulled down. This is 
 what had happened to it, at least as I conjecture, 
 for I studied it for a few minutes, and my eyes 
 had only been directed thither at the moment of 
 her departure. 
 
 She had been established, as we know, under 
 a fold of bark on the surface of the old Pear-Tree. 
 Her retreat lay just below a great dry branch, which, 
 having been broken by a storm, hung down the 
 tree held by a few fibres. A smooth shining- 
 bodied fly, of bluish black, with four wings of 
 dark violet, namely the carpenter bee, had ob- 
 served this dead branch and set to work on it. 
 Our bee had excellent carpenter's tools that is to 
 say, two great teeth formed of solid bits of shell 
 bent into augers, convex above, and ending in a 
 fine but strong point. She had then bored a 
 
122 
 
 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 hole towards the centre of the branch, but in an 
 oblique direction. As she proceeded with her 
 excavation she cast forth a quantity of sawdust, 
 which gathered in a heap on the ground. A great 
 expense of power, energy, and patience was re- 
 
 quired to bring such an enterprise to a successful 
 issue ; but where is the bee in whom these qua- 
 lities are lacking? They know what they want, 
 which is a rare quality, and only desire what 
 they can perform, and that is a still rarer one. 
 
SOLITARY BEES. 1-3 
 
 After several weeks of labour the wood-borer 
 had pierced a cavity of nearly twelve inches in 
 depth, very smooth, perfectly emptied, and very 
 regular. Then, without taking any time for repose, 
 she went afield to gather honey, and had filled 
 with it the whole of the lower part of the cavity 
 just spoken of, so as to make a mass there of 
 about an inch in height. When this was done 
 she laid an egg upon the paste in the fashion 
 of the mason bee. 
 
 The Scolopendra had been scared by the 
 unusual noises ringing around her during these 
 many goings to and fro, and had judged it best 
 to leave her own hut since it was in such a 
 dangerous neighbourhood. 
 
 The, bee took no more notice, being absorbed 
 in her more important cares. Of course she had 
 not made a hole twelve inches long to put only 
 one egg into it. She went out again, picked up 
 a little wood -dust, tempering it with a sort of 
 glue, brought it, and attached it to the walls 
 of the hole above the provision of honey. On 
 
124 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 the inner rim of this first circular layer of saw- 
 dust she placed a second ring concentric with 
 the first, then a third of smaller diameter. Soon 
 there was only a little hole left that she could 
 easily fill. Then the egg was enclosed in a real 
 chamber, firmly sealed up on all sides, and its 
 ceiling became the floor of a new cell, also con- 
 taining honey. Thus she constructed twelve 
 chambers intended as habitations for as many 
 grubs, all having near them the amount of sub- 
 sistence necessary for their wants until the time 
 of their charge. 
 
 What would our collectors of statistics, gentle- 
 men who are such hands at putting figures to- 
 gether, say if they were asked to estimate within 
 a few crumbs what an individual of their species 
 would eat before arriving at his majority ? Ah, 
 how the wood-borer would laugh at their answer ! 
 Or at least we will do so as her proxies. 
 
 Apropos to this, may I be allowed to recall 
 an amusing anecdote told by M. Eeaumur in one 
 of his Memoirs? 
 
SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 125 
 
 In the first days of the month of July 1736 
 an auditor of the Accountant-general's office, lord 
 of a village near Andelys, on the Seine, was 
 
 walking backwards and forwards in his drawing- 
 room. When I say he was promenading, I must 
 avow that it is only a supposition on my part, for 
 
126 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 M. Reaumur has not preserved these details. 
 Perhaps he was seated in his arm-chair delicately 
 wrapped in a small-patterned flowered dressing- 
 gown, a very suitable dress for an auditor ; but 
 this point has remained in doubt. A servant, 
 prudently only opening the door a little way, an- 
 nounced that a gardener from Andelys demanded 
 an audience. 
 
 He was introduced, a fine-looking man of 
 five feet eleven inches, bony, muscular, fair, of 
 a dazed look, with great brown eyes on a level 
 with his cheeks. He took off his cap, bowed 
 with a scrape of the foot, coughed, blushed, and 
 remained quiet. 
 
 " Well," said his master, " what is the news ? " 
 
 " Alas, sir," said the gardener, " a misfortune 
 has happened ! There is a wizard in the village, 
 and your whole estate is ruined and undone. 
 Not a workman will strike a pick into the ground 
 there any more. Please to look." 
 
 With these words he held out a little box 
 to his master, who, after such an amazing prelude, 
 
SOLITARY BEES. 127 
 
 opened it with much curiosity. In it were some 
 small cases made of rose leaves rolled up. These 
 perfectly closed cases seemed to have been made 
 with the utmost care, and were of remarkable 
 beauty. The auditor looked carefully at these 
 curious objects, touched them, felt them all over, 
 and was astonished at their marvellous complete- 
 ness and finish. 
 
 The gardener continued : " They were found 
 in one of the borders in front of the house. They 
 were not hid there for nothing, and he who buried 
 them knew very well what he was about." 
 
 " Indeed it is strange ; but you know, John, 
 no one believes in wizards." 
 
 John Paul shook his head, made a most 
 intricate grin expressive of both respect and of 
 doubt, turned and twisted his cap in embarrass- 
 ment, and then bashfully replied : 
 
 " As your worship pleases ; but the cunning 
 man to whom I showed these things could not 
 say any good of them. 1 am sure I should come 
 to harm if I went on working on the place." 
 
128 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 The auditor rose, rang, dressed himself, and 
 went to a surgeon who was a friend of his, followed 
 by the villager. He did not believe that there 
 was anything alarming in the story told him, 
 but he wished to have the opinion of a skilful 
 practitioner. Contrary to his expectations, the ex- 
 pedient was unsuccessful. Though the surgeon 
 was very skilful in his own business, he could 
 give none of the desired information. 
 
 What was to be done ? They went to the 
 Abbe Nollet, who was well known for his accurate 
 study of natural history. 
 
 The gardener, trembling all over, presented 
 the famous rolls to him, more confident than 
 ever that they had a savour of brimstone. Accord- 
 ing to him, there could not be a doubt. Besides 
 that, he thought no common man could do such 
 a piece of work ; he could not think why trouble, 
 such trouble, could have been taken, or such a 
 performance buried a spade deep. A wizard 
 alone could have put these accursed cases in 
 such a place to effect some charm. 
 
SOLITARY BEES. 129 
 
 The Abbe Nollet only answered this fair rea- 
 soning by a smile, for he had very good reasons 
 for not believing it. He went to a drawer, and 
 
 o 
 
 took from it other sheaths of leaves cleverly 
 worked by the scarabseus beetles, and showed 
 them to the rustic, telling him that they were 
 made by insects, and that those which had caused 
 him so much anxiety had no other origin. 
 
 John Paul was shaken, but not convinced. 
 If he had had the instinct of the Ichneumon, he 
 would have displayed some of it in conversation 
 with, this learned man, but he had only a little 
 human sense, and what more is wanted for 
 cherishing an illusion? .Nothing is so pleasing 
 as an error, especially when it issues in smart 
 attire from the secret recesses of the fancy. 
 
 M. Nollet meanwhile had set to work to undo 
 one of the rolls that they had brought him, an 
 attempt his visitors had ' never dared to make, 
 and he took from it a fat larva, that writhed 
 with rage at this unexpected violation of its 
 domicile. 
 
 K 
 
130 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 The gardener cried out with astonishment when 
 he saw this shapeless grub. He threw up his 
 arms, opened his mouth, and laughed noisily. 
 
 "I see what it is," said he, " and the cunning 
 man is nicely wrong! It was my own opinion 
 that he was a poor ignorant creature. I am going 
 to put these under his nose, and there will be 
 a fine noise about it in the village." 
 
 -"But," said the Abbe quietly, "I thought you 
 were of the same opinion as he was." 
 
 " I oh yes ! that is to say, no ; I thought that 
 there was something more behind it, that is all." 
 
 How often is this scene repeated from Paris 
 to China? 
 
 The pretty rolls that then caused such a dis- 
 turbance are the work of the Megachile cen- 
 tuncularis. This is another kind, of bee, though 
 by its terrible scientific name it would seem 
 rather as if it were an antediluvian monster than 
 a humble hymenopterous insect. 
 
 The cutter of rose leaves, faithful to the habits 
 of her tribe, bores the ground, and makes in it 
 
SOLITARY BEES. 131 
 
 a gallery of ten or twelve inches deep. In this 
 gallery are found these magic cases so ingeniously 
 folded. Each of them is composed of six or 
 seven sheaths of the same size laid end to end 
 and enclosed in one cover. Taking this off, they 
 are found placed in order. They make a kind 
 of cylinder, and are arranged like thimbles put 
 partly one into the other. The circular entrance 
 of the first covers the bottom of the second, 
 which serves for the base of the third, and so 
 on. Each of these little thimbles is a cell in- 
 tended as a refuge for a grub, which undergoes 
 two changes before becoming a bee. These cells 
 contain honey, and are made so as to prevent the 
 loss of one drop of this precious nourishment. 
 Yet the leaves that compose them are not glued, 
 but only placed close together. What are the 
 modes of operation of the Megachile centuncu- 
 laris (leaf-cutter bee) to obtain such a result ? 
 We will try to rob her of the secret. 
 
 Here she is pausing over a rose-tree all 
 covered with beautiful scented flowers. This is 
 
 K 2 
 
132 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 her favourite tree, but not her exclusive choice, 
 a& in case of need she will resort to another. 
 
 The first thing is to take up a suitable posi- 
 tion. She places herself on the outer edge of 
 a leaf, so that she can hold the cut part between 
 her legs and begin at the foot-stalk. Then 
 setting to work she > cuts out a great round piece 
 with her mandibles, working them as quickly as 
 a pair of scissors. Her position is convenient 
 for the purpose, but also presents some difficulties. 
 The bee is perched on the bit she is cutting, and 
 if care be not taken her weight will tear it off. 
 To prevent any accident of this sort she begins 
 to fly before the cut is finished, and for some 
 time supports herself in the air without leaning 
 on the material. 
 
 When this work is done, she carries off the 
 piece of leaf, holding it perpendicularly, .and carries 
 it to line the subterranean gallery that she has 
 hollowed out. Ten or twelve pieces of this kind 
 are required to make a cell, all not being of the 
 same thickness. The interior surface of each cell 
 
SOLITARY BEES. 133 
 
 is composed of three of these pieces, of the same 
 size, narrow at one end, larger at the other. The 
 jagged margin of the leaves is always placed 
 outside, while the smooth edge of the cut goes 
 inwards. 
 
 The Megachile centuncularis, like most insects, 
 now takes pains to strengthen the exterior of 
 the cell. For this purpose she surrounds it with 
 three or four oval pieces, and then with other bits 
 smaller in proportion. Besides, she takes good 
 care not to let joint lie over joint. Like a good 
 workman, she places the middle of each fragment 
 of leaf upon the cut part of that just used 
 before, so as to cover the joins. Also she folds 
 back the end so as to give it a convex form. 
 When the cell is complete she fills it with honey 
 and pollen, puts an egg in it, and covers it with 
 three pieces so perfectly circular that they might 
 be supposed to have been drawn with compasses. 
 Then she fills the whole gallery with similar 
 chambers, the round end of one filling the open 
 end of the next. If some unforeseen accident 
 
134 
 
 SOLITARY BEES. 
 
 L.E 
 
SOLITARY BEES. 135 
 
 forces her to quit her work for a time, she is in 
 haste to return, and hardly ever quits it before 
 the whole is completed. Her perseverance to this 
 end is remarkable. 
 
 It is said that St. Francis Xavier, walking 
 one day in the garden, saw a great winged insect 
 walking there with head bent down, and the fore 
 legs stretched out and elevated in the attitude 
 of prayer. He was much astonished at this cir- 
 cumstance, but much more so at hearing the 
 humble creature chant ; a beautiful canticle after 
 the custom of that period 'with great solemnity. 
 What would he have said if he had studied the 
 ways of our leaf- cutter of the rose ? It is true 
 that she has no voice, but nature has given 
 her a genius for mathematics a singular power 
 of tracing ovals and circles, without perfect draw- 
 ing instruments and a well- based knowledge 
 of the laws of elasticity. Miracles are all around 
 us ; in order to see them it is only necessary to 
 open our eyes, but that, it appears, is the chief 
 difficulty. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 
 
 DIGGERS. 
 
 MY old Pear-Tree, with its ever-blessed greeii 
 shade, had a rich client with beautiful black eyes, 
 that came sometimes to beg a little shade of him 
 at those hours when the grass falters and bends 
 under the burning rays of the sun. She walked with 
 measured steps, a grave and majestic air, gathered 
 a few flowers as she went, and lay down at the 
 foot of the tree. Then, with head raised and body 
 comfortably settled, she fixed her eyes on the 
 horizon, mechanically moving her lips. Her march 
 was followed by a little girl, as fresh as a rose, 
 making a curious piece of knitting, never ended, 
 
DIGGERS. 
 
 but always renewed. This illustrious client lived 
 at the farm, and was well known on the meadow, 
 being greeted with the most discordant cries by a 
 flock of jays every morning on her appearance. 
 She lived there happy and thoughtless of the 
 
 morrow, and was the delight 1 of her hosts. She was 
 supposed to have been originally of the county of 
 Durham, in England; but there was no actual 
 proof of this. However that might be, her name 
 
138 DIGGERS. 
 
 was Betsy, and she belonged, as I have omitted to 
 mention, to the bovine race. The stout farmer 
 thought a great deal of her, and never spoke of 
 the foreigner but in highest terms of the greatest 
 praise. She replied to his compliments by a 
 prolonged lowing, gave a flick of her tail to her 
 sides, and returned to her peaceful meal, burying 
 her nostrils deep in the grass. 
 
 She had an enemy, though she had never done 
 any harm to any one the Hypoderma bovis, who 
 harassed her unceasingly with unrivalled obstinacy. 
 This enemy was not to be dreaded for his strength, 
 but that only made him the more dangerous. In- 
 deed, more of life is spent in repelling trifling 
 aggressions, annoyances constantly renewed, than in 
 serious but honourable contests. Sometimes an oak 
 scarred by lightning forms fresh bark, its torn 
 leaves are renewed, and the branches half broken 
 off by the electric fluid may recover again. But 
 if attacked by grubs, its strength oozes out at a 
 thousand punctures, and it is immediately dried up. 
 
 Externally, Betsy's enemy was like a common 
 
DIGGERS. 139 
 
 fly, but very fat. Some writers have alleged him 
 to be descended from the illustrious fly on the 
 coach-wheel, described by La Fontaine, but we 
 can hardly believe them, for her heirs had left the 
 country for a town residence. The people who 
 abhor Latin names, and justly so, do not know 
 its title of Hypoderma bovis, and simply call it 
 breeze-fly. 
 
 The insect has great compound eyes, streaked 
 with green and red, pointed antennae, strong wings, 
 adorned with very conspicuous veinings. Its 
 colours are dull and dark. Its carnivorous in- 
 stincts would not have been suspected were 
 not its secret inclinations revealed by the mouth, 
 an organ of great expression in man as well as 
 beast. This curiously constructed mouth ought 
 to .be studied. It is composed of a kind of trunk, 
 with a protecting sheath, and little white and very 
 sharp teeth. 
 
 With these sharp hooks it tormented peaceful 
 Betsy. Some slight protuberances might already 
 be remarked on the back of the pretty black cow, 
 
140 DIGGERS. 
 
 hardly visible among the hair, but very sensible 
 to the touch. These round vesicles contained 
 the larvae of the breeze-fly, foul, grub-shaped 
 creatures, with two hooks at one end of their 
 body, divided into a certain number of rings, and 
 with no organ of locomotion. 
 
 This greedy family, that feeds on living flesh 
 and surrounds itself with corruption, is numerously 
 
 represented. It contains the gad-fly, spoken of 
 by Virgil in the " Georgics," the Gasterophyllus 
 licemorrhoidalis that attaches itself to horses, with 
 many other predatory flies. Humboldt and Bon- 
 pland even discovered in South America a species 
 of the same kind, that commits its ravages on 
 man; the larva if disturbed buries itself deeply 
 under the skin, and produces much inflammation, 
 
DIGGERS. 141 
 
 often fatal. It takes six months to perform all 
 its metamorphoses, six long months, while the 
 victim of the attack counts the hours, minutes, 
 and even seconds. 
 
 But we have wandered far from our subject, 
 as we never intended, in talking of the monstrous 
 client of the old Pear-Tree, to mention the Hypo- 
 derma bovis, or any of its relations. A much fairer 
 picture was ready to our pen, but it wanted a 
 frame, and we did not know where to find one. 
 The chief individual of this picture is still an 
 insect, but an insect of such curious manners that 
 it is hard to know how to exhibit it. The villagers, 
 who readily follow Boileau's example, and call a cat 
 a cat, describe it under the name of dung-beetle. 
 This name implies much, and ought to show why 
 the bearers of it are always found in meadows 
 and high-roads. 
 
 Entomologists place them in the tribe of Geo- 
 trupes, OP Arenicolse. They may all be recognised 
 by their hemispherical or oval body, by their wing- 
 covers enveloping the abdomen, and especially by 
 
142 DTGGEES. 
 
 their mandibles, more than half uncovered, very 
 strong, and much bent. As these insects are es- 
 sentially diggers, their legs are large, sharp-edged, 
 and much notched at the exterior edge. Their 
 mission is to free the surface of the ground from 
 anything that might seem offensive to delicate 
 persons. With the exception of some of them, 
 whose chosen domicile is in mushrooms, they are 
 generally found in what is by choice avoided. 
 They excavate sloping or upright holes under these 
 matters, and bury themselves in them as soon as 
 they fancy they are in danger. There is not much 
 temptation to pursue them thither, but they do 
 not fancy so. Perhaps they have good reason for 
 getting under cover. Certain collectors, very full 
 of Latin, are capable of searching everywhere. 
 
 The dung-beetles only leave their retreat in 
 the evening, and after having dressed themselves. 
 Seeing them pass brilliant and lustrous, no one 
 would suspect the life they lead. Their flight is 
 noisy and heavy just above the ground. If they 
 feel a touch, they at once counterfeit death not 
 
DIGGERS. 143 
 
 in a vulgar manner like the spiders, curling up into 
 a ball and remaining quiet, but in a remarkable 
 way, like true artists. Instead of bending back 
 their legs and antennae to the body, like most 
 insects, they, on the contrary, extend them, and 
 hold them as stiff as they would be in a perfectly 
 dried beetle. The imitation is so perfect that it 
 deceives their enemies ; among others, the crows, 
 who turn them over and over, and think them 
 unworthy of a peck. The butcher bird, it seems, 
 is not so easily deceived, and will not be so taken 
 in. Dead or alive, he sticks all he meets upon 
 the spines of the sloe, and devours them by degrees 
 as his appetite requires them. 
 
 The larvae of the dung-beetle live in the same 
 place as their parents, at the bottom of a round 
 hole of about fifteen inches deep, and full of food. 
 They have a good deal of similarity to the grub 
 of the cockchafer, and are whitish for a small 
 portion of their front wings, and of a bluish or 
 slaty grey on the rest of their body. 
 
 After this preliminary description we come to 
 
144 DIGGERS. 
 
 the details of the picture, which are now more 
 easy to describe. 
 
 One day walking on the quay of Santa Lucia, 
 at Naples, whence there is a view of Vesuvius, 
 the blue waves of the Mediterranean, Castellamare, 
 and Sorrento, I took it into my head to hire a 
 boat and be transported to Capri, that picturesque 
 island where Tiberius lived, whose rocky white 
 profile had often excited my attention. Some 
 sailors of bronzed hue, with red caps and striped 
 shirts, took me there in a few hours, and put me 
 on shore on a sandy beach, almost deserted. I 
 mounted some steps cut out of the rock, a good 
 deal broken, and invaded by vegetation in abun- 
 dance, and came to the village, to the inn with 
 the sign of 'the palm-tree, and left my little 
 valise there. 
 
 In great heat one has not much appetite, but 
 dinner is a necessity, if only to prevent losing 
 the habit. So I took a light repast under an ar- 
 bour of vines, at the foot of some massive columns, 
 between which were stretched out the flexible 
 
DIGGERS. 145 
 
 branches of figs. A tiger would have been tamed 
 there, I am convinced, especially after moistening 
 his lips with that beautiful golden wine with such 
 a delicate bouquet that is made on the island. My 
 collation finished, I left the inn on a voyage of 
 discovery. 
 
 The streets of Capri are narrow, considerably 
 irregular, and bordered by houses with dome- 
 shaped roofs, giving the place an Eastern appear- 
 ance. I soon came to a tolerably large open 
 space, and at the end was an arched doorway, 
 leading to the country. Under this arch, at a 
 small distance from the ground, was the aperture 
 of a window, with iron bars. An old woman 
 leant her elbows against it, conversing with a 
 person of ragged beard and pale face, who could 
 be seen behind the grating. 
 
 This dark corner, where yet a man's friends 
 could speak to him, was the public prison. 
 
 When I came to this spot, I found two roads 
 before me equally beautiful. The broadest on 
 the right led to Anna Capri, a sort of eagle's 
 
 L 
 
146 DIGGERS. 
 
 nest on a high mountain; the other and less 
 frequented road passed along the outside of the 
 village, lined by hedges of prickly pear, aloes 
 and vines winding among the rocks, and insen- 
 sibly descending to the sea. 
 
 I chose the latter for the sake of solitude, 
 delaying at each step, now to watch a snake es- 
 caping through the grass, now a butterfly rising 
 in the air, now to glance at the beautiful country 
 around me. Oh, how pleasant was the time I thus 
 spent, and how often have I regretted it! 
 
 At last I sat down on the root of a tree to 
 dream at my ease, and give myself over to my 
 feeling. Then I saw a living creature, about as 
 large as a cockchafer, moving over the sand, 
 an insect belonging to the tribe of dung-beetles, 
 family Ateuchitse. She had found what she 
 wanted, and was at work taking away some bits 
 of it. Doubtless it was an unpleasant operation, 
 but we will not be too sure on this point ; 
 maternal love ennobles all with which it comes 
 in contact. 
 
DIGGERS. 147 
 
 Our dung-beetle by her struggles contrived 
 to make a little ball, and kneaded it carefully, 
 mixing it with gravel. Then she dragged it to 
 a small distance, turned her back to it, and 
 began to roll it quickly over the ground, pushing 
 it with her hind feet. The ball as it rolled 
 gathered round it all the grains of sand that 
 clung to its surface, and at last became of some 
 size. All at once, when both its conductor and 
 I least expected it, it rolled into a hole caused 
 by the tread of a horse. 
 
 The dung-beetle turned round sharply, waved 
 her antennae, and rose up on her fore feet in 
 the most comical way to get a better view of 
 the neighbourhood around. Nothing was to be 
 seen, north, south, east, or west. To her great 
 astonishment, the ball had disappeared. Imme- 
 diately she began to search in great haste, and 
 at last discovered the object of her search in the 
 situation we have mentioned. On seeing it she 
 became calmer, though she was not entirely re- 
 lieved from anxiety. She marched round the hole 
 
 L 2 
 
148 DIGGERS. 
 
 where her property lay, went down into it, ex- 
 amined it carefully, and then making a buttress 
 of herself, set to work to get it out. I saw her 
 slowly ascending, with unheard-of labour, the 
 almost perpendicular slope that she had to sur- 
 mount, walking backwards and bearing all the 
 weight of a heavy burthen. She had nearly 
 done her work, when an unlucky motion all at 
 once destroyed her balance and that of the ball, 
 so that it fell into the pit along with her. 
 
 This was a terrible misadventure ; so our in- 
 sect remained motionless for a second, doubtless 
 to take breath, as a good workman, who has 
 failed in an arduous task, prepares to exert 
 double strength and vigour. 
 
 The ancient Greek poets, in their description 
 of the realms of Pluto, picture to us there fierce 
 Sisyphus painfully raising a rock, obliged to let 
 it fall, seizing it again, and recommencing his 
 dismal effort, without better success. They must 
 have taken the notion from our poor insect, so 
 sadly exercised, during its brief existence. See, 
 
DIGGERS. 
 
 ife/POESii 
 
150 DIGGERS. 
 
 she resumes her labour, but not, like Sisyphus, 
 with a feeling of degradation. She has confidence 
 in herself and succeeds. Her ball, vigorously 
 pushed, rises and rises, at last scales the precipice, 
 and rolls along the road. 
 
 The dung-beetle takes courage, seeing it dis- 
 engaged, and displays more zeal than ever. She 
 resumes her backward travel, and easily traverses 
 a distance of several feet. At last the ball 
 escapes from her again, and is swallowed up in 
 a crack in the ground. 
 
 What a poem! No enamel orb mounted on 
 a sovereign's sceptre ever gave so much trouble 
 to its owner. 
 
 But, thanks to chance, this time the famous 
 ball had fallen into a good place. The insect, 
 as far as I could judge by its demeanour, re- 
 joiced at the result obtained. She searched 
 around, went into the crack, cast wild looks 
 to right and left, and seemed better and better 
 satisfied at the examination. The eggs, hidden 
 in the middle of the sphere that it was so 
 
DIGGERS. 151 
 
 difficult to place properly, were in a suitable 
 position. They only had to be buried, and that 
 was soon done. When the work was concluded, 
 our beetle opened her wings, closed them, and 
 extended them again ; taking flight over the 
 grass, and soon disappearing in it. 
 
 This is what I saw on a fine summer day 
 on the high-road leading from the village of 
 Capri to the sea. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 A POWERFUL locomotive, driven by steam and 
 heated by fire, advances with rapidity over the rails, 
 but thought is still more rapid, easily outstrips 
 it, and arrives first at the journey's end. With- 
 out, having left our meadow, we have visited the 
 rocks of Capri; we are now in the neighbour- 
 hood of Bordeaux, traversing the Landes, that 
 ocean of stones, sand, emaciated plants, and brush- 
 wood. A shepherd walks steadily over the plain, 
 with long stilts on his feet, and having in his 
 hand an enormous pole terminated by a circular 
 plate. 
 
STILT WALKERS. 153 
 
 When near us he stops, puts his pole to the 
 ground, bends his knees, and sits down on the 
 plate, looking like a dwarf stuck up on a gigantic 
 tripod. In a country where the soil is shifting 
 and insecure, it is well to take every precaution 
 against accidents ; but at least, if we make use 
 of an ingenious idea, we should leave the credit 
 to the inventor and not appropriate it. 
 
 Now, while the inhabitant of the Landes, 
 proudly watching his sheep, is depicted by cele- 
 brated painters, and boasts of the originality and 
 strangeness of his style, the individual to whom 
 he owes all his glory, of whose idea he has taken 
 advantage, the real inventor of stilts, lives ob- 
 scure and unknown in the branches of my old 
 Pear-Tree. 
 
 The fact is incontestable; indeed, here is the 
 poor hero coming in his own person, not to 
 recount his griefs to us, for he wants no pity, 
 but to enjoy a beautiful spring day. His body 
 is oval, very small, and like that of a spider. 
 Head, neck, and abdomen are confused together, 
 
154 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 and he carries his eyes, two in number, on his 
 back, where they are separated by a somewhat 
 sharp crest. Like the shepherd of the Landes, 
 he walks on real poles; that is to say, on legs 
 of a remarkable length and fantastically slim. 
 He has eight, but does not use them all at 
 once. He generally raises some of them while 
 he walks, holding them horizontally, as if he 
 wanted to point to some distant object with his 
 toe. We have just compared him to a spider : 
 let us fancy that the threads of the spider's web 
 were suddenly endued with life and motion, 
 dragging, in their hasty march, the insect placed 
 in their centre, and we shall have a notion of 
 the shepherd spider, the unknown inventor of 
 stilts. 
 
 He feeds on the smallest creatures, whom he 
 seizes by force of agility, or else at unawares. 
 He may be seen any day, when the weather is 
 not too bad, wandering 'on the old Pear-Tree, 
 seeking his fortune, feeling over the mosses with 
 his long legs. If he finds anything worthy of 
 
STILT WALKERS. 
 
 155 
 
156 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 his desires, he lowers his body from the height 
 at which it usually hangs, and clings to the 
 bark of the tree to devour his prey. 
 
 During my sleep in the meadow, he per- 
 mitted me to witness a most curious spectacle. 
 Eesting on a stalk of Ladies'-bed-straw at a short 
 distance from me, he was taking care of bis per- 
 son with the exactness of a fop. .Firmly fixed 
 on his great stilts, he passed them one by one 
 through his mouth, in order to make them bright 
 and lustrous. 
 
 The male shepherd-spiders engage in furious 
 combats, and often leave some of their legs on 
 the field of battle. Though these limbs are easily 
 detached, they appear to be endowed with remarkable 
 vitality, and continue in motion a long time after 
 they are severed. This persistence in movement 
 after amputation should not surprise us ; it is not 
 peculiar to the shepherd-spider, but is also the 
 case with most insects. Life, which in the organi- 
 zation of man is centralized in force, is localized 
 more and more in proportion as beings descend 
 
STILT WALKERS. 157 
 
 the scale. Thus in insects the blood is not en- 
 closed in a system of special vessels ; they have 
 neither veins nor arteries, and the nourishing fluid 
 is distributed in the interstices that there are 
 between the various organs. This uncertain and 
 incomplete circulation is conducted by means of 
 a simple canal situated at the centre of the body 
 above the digestive tube. 
 
 The system of nerves is not composed, as in 
 man, of a cerebro-spinal axis, comprehending the 
 larger and smaller brain and spinal marrow; but 
 their nerves are distributed in little centres called 
 ganglions, apart from each other. Thus it may 
 be perceived, that if one of these centres be de- 
 stroyed, the others can act for some time indepen- 
 dently. There are animals also of a still more 
 rudimentary structure, as, for instance, the polyps, in 
 which the various faculties of relative life are not 
 peculiar to any special organ ; but all their parts 
 possess isolated sensation and power of motion. 
 
 The more Nature is studied, the greater is the 
 A* 
 admiration of her inexhaustible fruitfulness. We 
 
158 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 have hardly lost sight of the shepherd-spider 
 flying over the meadow on his long legs, before 
 here comes another stilt walker the Daddy-long- 
 legs or Tailor - crane - fly, whose aspect is more 
 strange than a dream could devise. It has a 
 narrow and slender body very much resembling 
 that of his cousin, though much larger. His mouth 
 is split from front to rear, and composed of two 
 lips, not placed one above the other, but side by 
 side, one on the outside, the other on the inside. 
 This mouth is situated at the extremity of a short 
 trunk, which terminates an already lengthy head, 
 adorned also with two gills. 
 
 The colours of our tipula are not brilliant, 
 being a whitish grey, and the corselet rising into 
 a most inelegant humpback. True, he has two 
 superb eyes, and that is saying something for him. 
 Were beauty reduced to regular and harmonious 
 outlines, it would be cold and statue-like, but 
 fine eyes give it radiance and light it up. The 
 eye of the tipula consists of a network of a 
 changeable green; a careful observer would even 
 
STILT WALKEES. 159 
 
 discover a little purple in it. The wings are 
 transparent, somewhat narrow, and generally held 
 far apart. The antennae are not remarkable except 
 for four or five great hairs of whose functions we 
 are quite ignorant. 
 
 I Whence com.es this new semi-grotesque person- 
 age, whom we must add to the already numerous 
 gallery of the guests of the old Pear-Tree ? Where 
 is she going, perched on her great legs, running 
 like the ostrich, and fanning her wings to quicken 
 
160 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 her speed ? See, she stops at the foot of a cavern 
 that time has excavated in the trunk of the tree. 
 At the bottom of this dark and gaping cavern 
 is a humid soil formed of rotting vegetable matter. 
 The tipula goes in and takes up a most curious 
 attitude ; raises her head, stands as high as possible 
 on her stilts, and at last places her body in a 
 perpendicular attitude. The two hind legs are now 
 the only ones that touch the ground. She looks 
 as if going to dance a minuet with some invisible 
 being in the hollow of the Pear-Tree. 
 
 Yet there is no one, and the poor thing would 
 certainly be far from supposing the solemn cour- 
 tesies of this dance manifestations of pleasure. 
 The head is full of other matters than amusement, 
 and, like the dung-beetle of Capri, her prime 
 thought is of duty. She brings to the ground 
 her long tail composed of four scaly pieces, making 
 two pairs of pincers of different lengths, and digs 
 it in with great vigour. Then the two pairs of 
 pincers open and allow two or three eggs to 
 escape, which remain in the hole bored by the 
 
STILT WALKERS. 
 
 161 
 
 tipula. These eggs are perfectly black, and look 
 like little polished grains of gunpowder. They 
 
 
 are oblong, and curved into a crescent shape. Each 
 female lays hundreds ; and so proceeds sowing her 
 progeny and piercing the earth at each step. 
 
 M 
 
162 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 When the eggs are laid, each soon becomes 
 full of grubs of a very dirty white, cylindrical 
 in form, except that the two ends are smaller 
 than the middle of the body. The head is scaly, 
 and not at all large. The insect does not often 
 display more than a portion of it, and when 
 taken in the hand retracts its front part within 
 the 'first ring. The tortoise evidently has play- 
 mates even among the smallest species. 
 
 The larvae of the crane fly cause great ravages 
 in grass land by moving the earth round the 
 roots of the plants, Which are thereby disturbed, 
 lifted up, and exposed to be dried by the sun. 
 Indeed they sometimes cut the .fibres in making 
 their galleries. The manner in which they receive 
 their supply of oxygen is worthy of notice. They 
 have a complete respiratory apparatus at the end 
 of their body, composed of a bunch of radiating 
 filaments and performing the office of true lungs. 
 
 It is not necessary to say that these rudimen- 
 tary creatures do not immediately exchange the 
 obscure life that they pass in their caves for that 
 
STILT WALKERS. 163 
 
 of a free winged fly flitting over the grass and 
 newly -blown flowers. In order to arrive at that 
 condition, our grubs, like caterpillars, dispense with 
 their skin, and live for some time under the form 
 of nymphse rigidly swaddled up. They are then 
 of a grey colour. Their future wings and antennae 
 are hidden under the abdomen, as well as the 
 legs, all in order and close together. These legs, 
 destined to be so greatly developed in future, are 
 folded and doubled so as to take up the least 
 room possible. 
 
 This is an example of the different means 
 employed by nature to accomplish the same end. 
 The nympha of the crane fly at the time of its 
 transformation must by degrees raise itself to the 
 surface of the ground and disengage its front 
 part. How is this to be accomplished, as the 
 legs are not only bent down, but enclosed in a 
 solid covering ? 
 
 The difficulty is resolved in the most remark- 
 able manner. The insect's body, though smooth 
 in the grub, in the nympha bristles with bumps 
 
 M 2 
 
1G4 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 and spines. There are some on all the rings, but 
 more on those near the tail. These spines slope 
 downwards ; some are single, some forked. And 
 it is by their means that the creature, feeling 
 ready for its entrance into another world, drags 
 itself with great effort towards the light. 
 
 Crane flies, like all insects which multiply with 
 rapidity, and whose females lay great numbers 
 of eggs, are greedily pursued and destroyed in 
 great quantities by birds, our most valuable assist- 
 
STILT WALKERS. 165 
 
 ants, without whom we should have much trouble 
 in evading the ravages of insects. Some inter- 
 esting facts will prove this. 
 
 A naturalist one day took a butterfly that 
 comes from a hairy caterpillar, and obtained from 
 it a brood of three hundred and fifty eggs, which 
 all hatched. He kept eighty eggs and brought 
 up the caterpillars. All performed their changes 
 and became perfect insects, except five which died 
 in the act of changing their skin. Among all 
 these butterflies there were fifteen females coming 
 from the eighty eggs ; the brood of three hundred 
 and fifty wou]d then in proportion have furnished 
 sixty-five females. Supposing that they had been 
 as fruitful as their mother, we come in the third 
 generation to a sum of twenty-two thousand seven 
 hundred and fifty caterpillars, among whom there 
 would have been at least four thousand two hun- 
 dred and sixty-five females, and they would have 
 produced in their turn one million four hundred 
 and ninety-two thousand seven hundred and fifty 
 grubs. These numbers are sufficiently oppressive ; 
 
166 STILT WALKERS. 
 
 but certainly viviparous flies will show us much 
 larger ones. They produce as many as twenty-two 
 thousand at a single birth. For these, supposing 
 the number of females equal to that of males, we 
 shall have at the third step not a miserable million 
 of individuals, but a splendid posterity of two 
 thousand decillions of beings, all living, flying, and 
 eating at the universal board. 
 
 At the end of a generation they would have 
 eaten us down to the bare boards, and there would 
 be no place left for us at the feast. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 FKOM THE MEADOW TO THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 THE slope that rises a tew steps from the great 
 Pear-Tree, half in sun, half in shade, is as popu- 
 lous as a hive of bees. A builder is at work 
 there at this moment, and is building a novel sort 
 of mansion there. If he was of our race, there 
 would be little about him in which to interest 
 ourselves. "We should most likely see him imi- 
 tating some Greek temple, endeavouring to renew 
 Roman art, inspired with Gothic taste, or sensibly 
 copying some edifice of the Renaissance. By com- 
 mon consent, architecture is a dead language at 
 present, only to be studied in ancient authors. By 
 
168 FROM THE MEADOW 
 
 the employment of iron, so wonderfully worked at 
 the present day in turn with zinc and glass, some 
 rash adventurers have endeavoured to raise edifices 
 full of elegance and lightness, but in a style 
 unknown to Vitruvius ; but it seems as if their 
 deeds had been scandalous, and that such efforts 
 ought not to be encouraged. 
 
 The builder that we are going to discuss is a 
 simple insect, with only his instinct to guide him, 
 and yet indulging at times in original efforts. It 
 is a grey larva, with a body of oval shape, covered 
 with little tubercles. It can only walk back- 
 wards, and bears in front of his head a pair of 
 jagged pincers, sharp, and hollow within. These 
 pincers supply the place of mouth, proboscis, and 
 offensive weapons. There are several tools, but he 
 wants them all ; for he is at once workman, 
 mechanic, and soldier. He has just set to work, 
 and we can study his smallest movements at 
 leisure. 
 
 Like a prudent insect, he begins by examining 
 the surface of the ground, in order to make choice 
 
TO THE WILDELSESS. 
 
 1(59 
 
 of a suitable position. After some hesitation he 
 fixes on a somewhat sandy flat, a few inches across, 
 about half-way up the slope. He levels it a little, 
 clears out the rubbish, then digging his tail into 
 the ground, he traces a perfect circle by using the 
 point of one of his pincers as a compass, and the 
 end of his tail for a centre-point. He then begins 
 to dig in this space, heaps a quantity of sand on 
 
 his head, and, by giving a good shake, casts the 
 burthen outside the circle. He then continues to 
 work for some minutes, turning round and round 
 and walking backwards. When returned to the 
 point of departure, he changes sides. Mountains 
 are moved by courage and perseverance, and d 
 fortiori why may not holes be dug ? So our builder 
 by dint of labour constructs a large funnel with 
 
170 FROM THE MEADOW 
 
 its point, about two inches deep. Then he takes 
 up his position at the bottom of this cavity, buries 
 himself there, only showing his pair of pincers 
 extended and open at the bottom of the pit, and 
 perfectly motionless. 
 
 What is his expectation as he lies concealed in 
 darkness and mystery ? His name will sufficiently 
 declare his object. He is called the. Ant Lion. 
 
 Yes, indeed, with justice. The very ants that 
 climb so impudently over my body as I lie in 
 the grass, have a most formidable enemy, who 
 scrunches them up all standing, in despite of the 
 desperate resistance they make. After all, what 
 is there to wonder at in his manners and customs ? 
 Considering that the whale, that giant denizen of 
 the sea, is vanquished by the attacks of man, of 
 sharks, of saw-fish, of sword-fish, of seals, and of 
 white bears, it may be inferred that the ant 
 cannot escape being exposed to some mischance. 
 There can be no conqueror without a combat, and 
 the issue of encounters is not always fortunate. 
 According to Homer, Achilles himself had a vul- 
 
TO THE WIL 
 
 nerable heel,""" and yet none buTT 5 ^ jtufefHels, i.e. 
 the next thing to a demigod, can help failing, not 
 only in one but in both feet. 
 
 If by chance an ant running by should fall 
 into the hole that her enemy has dug, she is im- 
 mediately seized in his pincers and pitilessly de- 
 voured. If as she roils down she tries to cling to 
 the sides of the funnel, the adversary rains sand 
 upon her to hasten her fall. The ant lion is not 
 the only employer of this generally successful 
 stratagem ; some fishes do the same. The lot of 
 the archer, an inhabitant of the Ganges, is to 
 feed on insects : yet he cannot issue from the 
 water to catch them in the fields of air. This 
 industrious insect counsels him to hide against 
 the bank till an incautious fly comes to perch 
 among the aquatic weeds. The instant the victim 
 is observed, a spout of water is cast at him, and 
 carries him down into the river. The archer seems 
 seldom to miss his aim, even at a distance of 
 several feet. 
 
 * Homer never said so. ED. 
 
172 FKOM THE MEADOW 
 
 To return to the ant lion, by the way, we 
 may observe he has no objection to a change of 
 diet. Every insect of medium size that is attracted 
 to his pit by curiosity gets into trouble. Even 
 one of his own kind, if he got his foot in them 
 by chance, would not be spared. Patient waiting 
 for hours for a good meal makes any one savage. 
 
 When the time for transformation is come, our 
 larva, now arrived at his full growth, goes back- 
 wards and forwards, tracing irregular furrows in 
 the ground, and spins himself a round cocoon, 
 covered with sand outside, and inside hung with 
 fine white silk. Within this cocoon it changes 
 into a nymph, and may there be seen curled into 
 a circle, motionless, and calmly awaiting the mo- 
 ment of deliverance. 
 
 The perfect insect is very long, and a good 
 deal like the dragon-fly. It has four great wings, 
 with very numerous and delicate nervures. It lays 
 its reddish-white eggs in a sandy and very dry 
 soil, in some spot protected from the rain, or at 
 the foot of an old wall with a southern exposure. 
 
TO THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 173 
 
 However remarkable is the voracity of the 
 ant lion, it is not equal to that of many other 
 insects. All are equally ravenous on issuing from 
 the egg. They fling themselves on their prey, 
 gorge on it to satiety, go to sleep, and only wake 
 
 to eat again. A naturalist has remarked that 
 the larva of a fly, the Musca carnaria, or blow- 
 fly, in twenty-four hours becomes two hundred 
 times as heavy as at first. The raisers of silk- 
 worms have made similar inquiries, and proved 
 
174 FROM THE MEADOW 
 
 that the caterpillars hatched from one ounce of 
 eggs eat sixteen hundred and nine mulberry leaves 
 before reaching the perfect state. This enormous 
 consumption of eatables is necessary to the larvae, 
 as they must lay in a store of sustenance to be 
 able to bear the long fast they undergo in the 
 state of chrysalis, or nympha. Their stomacli 
 changes with their nature. The greedy silkworm 
 that consumed a mass of green leaves sixty 
 thousand times its own weight, when become a 
 moth only takes a little honey by way of nourish- 
 ment. The digestive organs of the first had very 
 great power ; those of the second are reduced to 
 the thickness of a thread. 
 
 It is not always so. But two paces from the 
 ant lion's pit, among my Pear-Tree's roots, there 
 has lain for some time a mass of eggs, united 
 by a fine membrane, from which there issued 
 a swarm of little larvae. These of course had 
 neither wings nor wing-covers, but even from this 
 early period their possession at a future day might 
 be predicted, judging by four protuberances, like 
 
TO THE WILDERNESS. 17) 
 
 buttons, that project from their segments. The 
 creatures dispersed at the foot of the slope, ate 
 the grass, made their transformations, and we now 
 see them skipping joyously around us in shape of 
 grasshoppers. 
 
 The ravages inflicted by caterpillars are trifling 
 compared to the terrible devastations caused by 
 the larvae of the locust, one of the varieties of 
 that numerous family whose destroying march has 
 been described most forcibly by Oriental poets.* 
 
 A column of fire goeth before them, and a 
 burning flame folio we th them. Before them ex- 
 tends a rich country like the Garden of Eden, 
 behind can only be seen a desert of bare mon- 
 strous outlines, an ocean of stones and sand. Yes, 
 nothing can escape them. The clash of their 
 wings resound afar like that of the war chariot 
 drawn by horses, at the moment when it dashes 
 into the combat, ploughing its bloody track through 
 the thickest. They pass over the tops of the hills 
 like flame flying and crackling over lands covered 
 
 * See Joel ii. 
 
176 FROM THE MEADOW 
 
 with stubble, or like armed legions going to the 
 war. Before them men shudder and feel their 
 countenance turn pale. They march in innumer- 
 able quantities, always going forward, keeping 
 their rank, and confident in their strength. 
 
 A learned traveller, Dr. Shaw, was present at 
 one of these invasions in Algeria, and has given 
 a most curious picture of it. The grasshoppers 
 appeared at the end of March, and their numbers 
 increased to such a pitch that in the following 
 month their swarms when taking flight interrupted 
 the light of the sun. At the beginning of May 
 they retired into the Mitidjah and other neigh- 
 bouring plains to lay their eggs. No sooner were 
 they hatched than the young larvae banded together 
 and marched in a compact army in the direction 
 of the sea, leaving all perfectly bare wherever 
 their legions appeared. They were indefatigable ; 
 climbed trees, scaled walls, entered houses, and 
 appeared to spring from the ground. Meanwhile 
 the inhabitants had taken measures of defence ; 
 they dug immense trenches around the gardens 
 
TO THE WILDERNESS. 177 
 
 and fields, and filled them with water to several 
 feet in depth. Piles of fuel had been prepared to 
 be fired on the arrival of the destroying column. 
 
 It came, made a bridge of the dead by which 
 it passed the ditches, put out the fires by delivering 
 over to them heaps of victims to be consumed, 
 and continued its triumphant course. Other bands 
 followed this first army, then still more, spreading 
 around them misery, famine, and death. 
 
 Ha'ving continued for a month this aggressive 
 and persecuted existence, the larvae had reached 
 their full growth and become perfect. In order 
 to perform this change they attached themselves 
 by their legs to a branch, or, failing that, to .any 
 projecting object, and shook themselves so <0ften 
 and so well as to disentangle themselves of their 
 old useless skin. This laborious task lasted from 
 seven to eight minutes, and was followed by an 
 almost complete prostration. Nevertheless, they 
 might be seen to revive as soon as the action of 
 the sun and air had dried their wings, to shake 
 their antennae, and spring forth more voracious 
 
 H 
 
178 FROM THE MEADOW 
 
 than ever with fresh powers and greater activity. 
 It is difficult to form an idea of the swarms of 
 locusts that invaded Africa in the year 1797. 
 An English naturalist, Mr. Barrow, who could 
 judge with his own eyes, reports that these 
 insects covered an area of country two thou- 
 sand square miles in extent. The current of a 
 large river in which grew some reeds was entirely 
 stopped by the heaps of their bodies. Having 
 mown down everything in the neighbourhood, 
 the surviving green rushes on the bank had excited 
 their desires, and they perished by myriads in 
 trying to obtain them. 
 
 When the locusts begin on a field of corn, they 
 attack the ears first, and pluck out grain after 
 grain ; then they devour the stalk, afterwards the 
 leaves, and only stop when they come down to the 
 surface of the ground. Once on the march, these 
 larvae never stop, and their direction is determined 
 by that of the wind. At sunset the immense 
 army halts and divides into small detachments 
 that take possession of plants, of tufts of grass, ant- 
 
TO THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 179 
 
180 FROM THE MEADOW 
 
 hills, and stores, and pass the night there. Then it is 
 that attempts are made to destroy them by driving 
 great flocks of sheep over the spots where they 
 are encamped, and incredible quantities are crushed. 
 
 If the wind brings them, the storm also carries 
 them away. Certain coast districts of Africa, 
 where they multiplied with frightful rapidity, were 
 delivered in this manner. A current of air from 
 the north-west raised them in compact masses and 
 swept them into the sea. Their bodies covered the 
 coast, and composed a bank three or four feet high 
 and extending nearly fifty miles. Terrible in their 
 lives, they were yet more so after death, and for a 
 rtime it was feared that the plague would succeed 
 'to famine. 
 
 loa our temperate climates the grasshoppers are 
 not animated by such a rabid thirst for destruction. 
 It required the burning emanations of a tropical 
 sun and the acid fire of the desert to fling them 
 thus on nature. Yet at times the locusts do unite 
 in bands in Italy. They commence their travels at 
 early dawn after the dew is dried up. Some of 
 
TO THE WILDERNESS. 181 
 
 them spring up in the ranks, awake their sleeping 
 comrades, and seem to act as messengers. Soon 
 they all set out on their march, all in the same 
 direction and without great deviations. Though 
 very near together they never come in contact, 
 and travel nearly as fast as a fly running on the 
 ground without making use of its wings. If pur- 
 sued or attacked on the march, they disperse, to 
 assemble anew a little further off. They travel thus 
 till evening without stopping, advancing about nine 
 feet in the day. Though they in general prefer to 
 follow the great roads and beaten paths, when they 
 meet with brushwood, hedges, or ditches, they do 
 not turn from their way, but seek to surmount 
 these obstacles. Marshes, rivers, or canals turn 
 them aside to take another direction, unless they 
 manage to cross them on a bridge of reeds, or by 
 making use of the bushy branches that overhang 
 the water. Towards sunset they encamp, like their 
 African relatives. They do not move during rain, 
 or while the sky is cloudy. When their wings are 
 developed they separate a little from each other, 
 
182 FROM MEADOW TO WILDERNESS. 
 
 still, however, keeping together and advancing in 
 numerous swarms. 
 
 Locusts invaded England in the year 1748, 
 but without breeding there. They were seen also 
 in Poland and Lithuania, where they appeared 
 in sufficient numbers to darken the air. Trees 
 with long and flexible branches bent under their 
 weight. Our locusts, with their erratic and dis- 
 orderly habits, were sure to obtain the attention 
 of the magistrates ; so we find several provisions 
 that concern them. The jurisconsults questioned : 
 What if a farmer by contract having renounced 
 making any kind of accident a plea for avoiding 
 the payment of his rent, should see his harvest 
 devoured by grasshoppers ? Should he bear the 
 loss, or the landed proprietor be charged with it ? 
 This question wa,s the subject of a Latin thesis of 
 Joachim Hoppius : De edaci locustorum pernicie, 
 a L. Excepto lempore E. Local, et conduct. It 
 may be discovered in some old libraries, where we 
 will let it repose in peace until such time as our 
 own fields be mown down by locusts. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A VINDICATION. 
 
 IF there is a maligned, calumniated, slandered 
 insect, it is the one who has planted her home 
 before us, under a stone at the foot of the great 
 Pear-Tree, at a very short distance from a superb 
 tuft of camomile. 
 
 It is true that her appearance does not give 
 a favourable impression. Her head is brown, 
 corselet flat and black, with paler edges. The 
 wing-cases are very short, and make her look 
 like a man who has lost his arms. She is awk- 
 ward, inelegant, and seems only to have stumps 
 
184 A VINDICATION. 
 
 for wing-cases. The body is terminated by a 
 long pair of pincers, of hard substance, curved 
 into an arch, with the points touching. She is 
 known by the significant name of Forficula, or 
 Earwig. If she comes into our sight when going 
 about her business, she usually forfeits her life 
 for her imprudence. The learned have taken much 
 pains in pleading her cause, and endeavouring to 
 convince people that it would be very injurious 
 to the Forficula to live inside a skull, all the more 
 so that there are plenty of hot brains in the 
 world. The anatomists have made common cause 
 with naturalists, and borne witness to the im- 
 possibility of such an entrance being effected 
 into our bony case, perfectly closed at the point 
 of the ear ; but they are not listened to. Ento- 
 mologists, thinking that they could put an end to 
 the question, added that the insect's pincers were 
 not strong enough to produce the slightest im- 
 pression. Their simplicity is derided. 
 
 A single word only is required to create a preju- 
 dice ; millions may be spoken without confuting it. 
 
A VINDICATION. 185 
 
 At least thus much justice may be granted to 
 the earwig, as to allow that it is full of devotion 
 to its larvae, not abandoning them till they are 
 of an age to make their own way in the world. 
 If we raise the stone under which she has taken 
 shelter, we shall find her there surrounded by her 
 family. She only robs us from time to time 
 of some fruit, makes a hole in a ripe pear, and 
 buries herself in it like an open-mouthed glutton. 
 Open fields are preferred by her, wet sand, the 
 margins of ponds, and shady gardens. Her life 
 is peaceful, calm, and rural ; but this does not 
 prevent her being considered as odious. 
 
 Near her lives one of her relations, having 
 like her an elongated body, filiform antennae, wings 
 hidden under disproportionately small coverts, and 
 likewise a great bull-dog head, with jaws pro- 
 jecting to right and left in a most menacing 
 fashion. It is the great black Staphyllinus,* of 
 agile limbs, and of sharp, teasing temper. He 
 searches for decaying animal matter, and throws 
 
 * The Devil's Coach-horse. 
 
186 A VINDICATION. 
 
 himself on living insects, and his voracity even 
 induces him to commit Staphyllinophagy ; that is 
 to say, to eat his own fellows. 
 
 Yet this individual, though his habits are sus- 
 picious, does not excite any repugnance. It is 
 true that he raises his head at the least attack, 
 brandishing his tail as if he had a terrible sting 
 
 in it ; while the poor earwig, if it falls into an 
 ant-hill, or under the foot of man, tries to escape 
 at its utmost speed, without having an idea of 
 making use of those famous pincers that have made 
 her so many enemies. 
 
 Another unfortunate, more abject and miserable 
 still, composed of rings soldered one to the other, 
 
A VINDICATION. 187 
 
 with naked body, shiny, tapering to a point in 
 front, and a dweller underground, is moving a 
 short distance off. The approach of a mole makes 
 it hastily quit its obscure hole ; and here it is 
 crawling through the grass, turning and twisting 
 as if suffering from a spasm, as it feels the warm 
 rays of the sun upon its cold skin. It is the 
 Lumbricus, or Earth-worm. 
 
 It hates the glare of day, the blue sky, and 
 balmy breeze. What it likes is the great grey 
 cloud heavily driving over the horizon, shedding 
 torrents of rain on its course, washing the leaves 
 and moistening the branches, distributing all around 
 great puddles of muddy water. Then it protrudes 
 half its body from its den, raises itself painfully 
 to some flower bent down by the storm, drags it 
 to the orifice of a deep hole soiled with mire and 
 discoloured, and then slowly devours it. 
 
 Only just sufficient for this are its organs 
 The first segment of the body is a little prolonged, 
 and answers for an upper lip. The next ring has 
 a border, above which is a narrow opening. Such 
 
188 A VINDICATION. 
 
 is the mouth. The nervous system is very little 
 developed, and consists of a chain of very small 
 ganglions, distributed from one end of the body 
 to the other. It presents hardly any individuality, 
 and each one unites the two sexes. The eggs are 
 vesicles, with horny shell, oval or elongated. 
 
 We only meet it with a gesture of repugnance, 
 and yet this wretched earth-worm is beautiful, if 
 only beauty consists in the perfect harmony of 
 different organs, and the complete adaptation to 
 the medium in which they are to be employed. But 
 how can we get this definition admitted, especially 
 among painters ? Let us study the pictures of the 
 greatest masters, and what shall we find there but 
 that each one's ideal is the face of their own kind, 
 chastened by thought, embellished by fancy, re- 
 fined by meditation ? The earth-worm must be 
 resigned to be considered ugly till it too gets 
 knowledge .how to wield the pencil and the brush. 
 
 It has both already, and no need of instru- 
 ments. I see from here, thanks to my double 
 eight, eight stiff, short-hooked bristles under each 
 
A VINDICATION. 189 
 
 of its rings. Their direction is from front to rear, 
 and at the top of each is a pore. They are em- 
 ployed as feet for want of better, when it is com- 
 pelled to quit its underground gallery and seek 
 adventures on the high road. 
 
 If new proofs were wanted of the injustice of 
 certain generally-received opinions, we should find 
 them, and in plenty, without leaving the old Pear- 
 Tree. There is one of its population that children 
 look for under the name of Lady-bird, or Lady- 
 cow, known scientifically by the appellation of 
 Coccinella, a round, smooth, brilliant, lustrous 
 bead, adorned with a black head, set off with two 
 little white spots. Besides, she is marked with 
 seven dark marks disposed triangularly, and fault- 
 lessly regular. Nothing can be prettier, and one 
 would hesitate to do the least harm to this charm- 
 ing little thing, so exceedingly well enamelled. It 
 ought to live, it would seem, only on the pollen 
 of flowers, mingled with a little dew. 
 
 We must not trust it. Do you see that great 
 grub, long and grey, bedaubed with black and 
 
190 
 
 A VINDICATION. 
 
 white, crawling among the plant lice and tearing 
 them up with its horny jaws ? The vital juice 
 flows around it in drops, and it kills whatever it 
 touches. The author of all these murders, so coolly 
 
 perpetrated all along her track, is the innocent 
 Lady-bird in the first phase of her existence. 
 
 When gorged upon the swarming population 
 around her till no more can be swallowed, she 
 

 A VINDICATION. 
 
 clings to a leaf with the end of her tail, an er 
 skin stretches like the cloth of a bag that is too 
 full. Gradually the circulation in it becomes less 
 active, and this outer skin stiffens, and forms a 
 species of cocoon, whence this living bead at last 
 issues, of whom people say that she must be re- 
 spected as never having done harm to any one. 
 
 Poor earwig ! unfortunate worm ! why have 
 they not the impertinence of the Coach-horse, or 
 the credit of the Lady-bird ? Certainly it is not 
 from man that they have learnt the lesson of 
 humility and modesty. From the time he put in an 
 appearance here below, he made the earth that he 
 inhabits the centre of the universe, and himself 
 the point of attraction to everything in this world. 
 Believe him, and stones, plants, animals, every- 
 thing, have only been created with a view to his 
 employment of them. This theory still numbers 
 many votaries, and would be pleasing to me also 
 did not some facts stand in singular opposition 
 to it. These are sometimes embarrassing ; so we 
 will pass our opinion on them. 
 
192 A VINDICATION. 
 
 It is not to be denied that great numbers of 
 insects pillage and ravage our fields, attack us 
 at home at our very hearths, and cause us an 
 immensity of damage. They perforate our fur- 
 niture, wander in our libraries, make nests in 
 wardrobes, go from one room to another, and 
 leave everywhere visible traces of their stay. 
 They devour our corn, gnaw our fruit, destroy 
 the plants of the kitchen garden, disturb our 
 rest, prick us, wound us, bite us, and persecute 
 us in a thousand ways. 
 
 Indeed it must be confessed that these are 
 strange sort of auxiliaries, and their ways would 
 excite reflection did not the ingenuity of man 
 find an answer for all. 
 
 It says : " They have received life in order 
 to punish us for our crimes, and are employed 
 by Heaven to scourge our vices." 
 
 This explanation is good, but I prefer another 
 that I owe to a flight of birds that alighted on 
 my old tree with ever-moving wings and un- 
 closed beak. This troop, which had assembled 
 
A VINDICATION. 
 
 193 
 
194 A VINDICATION. 
 
 to pursue some late flying owl, comprised titmice, 
 chaffinches, hedge sparrows, and even linnets. 
 
 All these birds twittered, whistled, and sang, 
 in different tongues. Each one had his favourite 
 notes, his peculiar scale, and his own warble. 
 Some strung together two or three sharp and 
 shrill notes without pretension ; others rose on 
 their little legs and made a display of rolling 
 trills. 
 
 And -strange it was that the difference of all 
 these tones raised at once over the mead was not 
 at all disagreeable. They .melted one into the 
 other, and constituted an indefinable harmony, 
 rather \vague, but full of charm. 
 
 And 'hearing them, I said : " There are in 
 this world beings of all kinds, unequal in power 
 and intelligence, according as more or less 
 deeply penetrated by divine breath. They have a 
 common bond in their origin, and obey the same 
 general laws. They are frequently in accordance, 
 they are constantly in connexion, but all have 
 their individual destiny, their own development, 
 
A VINDICATION. 195 
 
 and peculiar transformations. One has not been 
 created for another, and none of them, not even 
 man, is a centre of light and heat. The sun 
 that lights and warms them, the real source of 
 life, blazes far from them all above their heads 
 in the immeasurable height of the skies. Our 
 philosophers and sages, stammering in the lan- 
 guage of truth, have modelled creation at the will 
 of their conceit ; but fruitful mother Nature re- 
 veals to them another principle, based on love, 
 the undefined striving of beings for perfection, 
 the constant aspiration of all that exists towards 
 a better state. In varied forms, sthas aspiration 
 increases ,as it ascends in the scale, till at last 
 it loses itself where our gaze cannot follow it, 
 in that Infinite Supreme Eternal Unity, before 
 whom the intellect of man is nothing but un- 
 certainty and confusion." 
 
 So let us forgive the earth-worm's disagreeable 
 appearance and the lady-bird's sanguinary customs. 
 
 Besides, the latter is really charming, and 
 seems like a waif from a jeweller's workshop. 
 
 2 
 
196 A VINDICATION. 
 
 Some of them are red, with two great white 
 marks on the sides : these are found on the alder ; 
 some scarlet, with five black round spots ; others 
 again in scarlet clothing, but with a yellow corselet 
 and marked with thirteen black dots : these last 
 live on the wych-elm. One of the largest, the 
 Coccinella Argus, is all red below as well as above, 
 head and breast of one same colour. On each 
 wing-cover may be seen five dark spots, both sides 
 exactly alike, and there is an eleventh at the 
 junction of the wings. These spots are round 
 and black, with a yellow rim, different from the 
 colour of the wing-cases, and look like so many 
 ever open eyes disposed over the creature's whole 
 body. 
 
 It may be supposed that this brilliant per- 
 sonage is somewhat scarce, and does not often 
 favour us with her presence. She lives on bushes 
 in the open country where the air is good and 
 plant-lice fat and numerous. 
 
 A. striped and very pretty Coccinella is found 
 on flowers, but yet less curious than another 
 
A VINDICATION. 197 
 
 variety of the same family also an inhabitant 
 of flowers. This has a real chessboard on its 
 back. We should never finish if we tried to 
 describe all that there are in collections. 
 
 There are lady-birds gilded and silvered, and 
 purple, striped with these different hues. Indeed, 
 some of them are shaggy and crossed by two 
 great red bands. I have seen some that crawled 
 on branches like little tortoises on earth, with 
 a sharp projecting margin all round their wing- 
 covers. Nature is prodigal, inexhaustible, and 
 never counts the jewels in her casket. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE OBSEQUIES OF A FIELD MOUSE. 
 
 EVERY one knows the town rat, that impudent 
 guest always ready to hold festival at another's 
 table, and who even has the hardihood to invite 
 some of his long-moustached friends who, like 
 himself, may be moving about in search of food 
 at night, with the stomach more active than the 
 conscience. The country rat is also possessed of 
 a certain notoriety, thanks to La Fontaine. Some- 
 times he is found in farms sleeping on bundles 
 of straw like a real vagabond, constantly hunted 
 by the cats, those volunteer members of the rural 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF A FIELD MOUSE. 
 
 199 
 
 police. Both of them, the town rat and the 
 country rat, are of very marked style, to which 
 Callot has done justice. 
 
 They are mendicants, and well contented so 
 to be. Such is not their cousin the field mouse, 
 
200 
 
 THE OBSEQUIES OF 
 
 whose curious history came to my knowledge in 
 my meadow. 
 
 The cousin in question is of small stature, 
 
 and does not measure much more than three 
 inches from the tip of his nose to the root of 
 his tail. His head is large, nibbler that he is, 
 
A FIELD MOUSE. 201 
 
 and his muzzle blunt. His cutting teeth are 
 very yellow, and as for his molars, they have a 
 fla,t crown furrowed transversely on it very much 
 like those of the elephant. His ear is small, a 
 mark of good birth, and is well clothed in fur. 
 The eyes project and are very sharp, and the 
 tail is in part without fur. The upper part of 
 the body is a mingled tint of brown and black, 
 the stomach of a very dark ash-coloured grey. 
 
 Our field mouse, far from passing a miserable 
 existence like his congeners, always finds means 
 of living in opulence. In the month of August, 
 when the ears of corn ripen and cover the plain 
 afar with golden masses, he scampers before the 
 labourer, cuts the wheat-stalks, gnaws the fattest 
 grains, and so takes his tithe of the harvest. 
 Later he mixes with the gleaners, and knows 
 better than they how to swell his sheaf. When 
 the land is bared, and there are nothing but lean 
 pipes of stubble to be found, he moves a few steps 
 away to newly-sown fields. What a treasure 
 is a rich furrow fall of grain left free to his 
 
202 THE OBSEQUIES OF 
 
 appetite ! If this resource fails, lie goes into en- 
 closed meads to destroy the roots of grass and 
 plants, or pays a visit to gardens and orchards. 
 In winter, when driven by the snow from open 
 fields, he frequents the woods full of acorns and 
 beech-nuts. In time of absolute fast his measures 
 are soon taken, for he falls upon the weakest of his 
 neighbours, were it even on another field mouse, 
 tearing him to pieces and eating him up. 
 
 This is what is called bending to circum- 
 stances and knowing what one is about ! Who 
 would not wish to be a field mouse, even though 
 naturally a bit of a rat already. 
 
 To great activity in destruction and much 
 agility, the cunning creature adds the disastrous 
 quality of multiplying prodigiously. He and his 
 family sometimes establish considerable colonies, 
 extending in a short time over several square 
 leagues. The female brings forth twice a year 
 in our climate, in spring and summer, ten or 
 twelve little ones. Farther north, where the pine 
 takes the place of oak and beech, its fecundity 
 
A FIELD MOUSE. 203 
 
 is not so great, and only displayed once a year, 
 during the last days of April. 
 
 The field mouse makes for himself under- 
 ground retreats, whither he flies at the smallest 
 sign of danger, like the classical brigands of Spain 
 or Italy. These retreats serve him at once as 
 abode and storehouse. They are not very spacious, 
 it is true, nor burrowed very deeply into the 
 earth, but yet they provide a secure retreat, and 
 are generally divided into two or three chambers. 
 The galleries occupied by different families are 
 not contiguous ; between tten a greater or less 
 space always remains. If the occupants of these 
 underground chambers leave them or die, no 
 others take up their abode there. New comers 
 prefer to work for themselves further off for 
 their own use, and despise the labours of another. 
 None of them generally dig deeper than six 
 inches or a foot, but often the females, before 
 producing their young, prolong the excavation to 
 even two feet deep, by a gallery, hardly an inch 
 in size, that after several windings opens on a 
 
204 THE OBSEQUIES OF 
 
 kind of chamber provided with a soft lining of 
 dry grass ; and on this downy couch the brood 
 are born. 
 
 The stout farmer, joint owner of my meadow, 
 had declared war to the death against all this 
 race, harshly calling them vermin. He had been 
 told that leaves of alder spread on the field and 
 ploughed in would drive away the field mice, 
 and had tried it : a useless labour, for next year 
 his enemies were more numerous than ever. 
 Exasperated by want of success, he sowed in 
 his orchard and on his land a quantity of oats 
 steeped in a solution of arsenic. ' This method 
 answered indeed only too well, for many fowls, 
 and the best of layers, were killed as well as our 
 indefatigable devourers. This was no true suc- 
 cess for our friend : though victorious, he paid the 
 expenses of the war. So he changed his tactics, 
 took spurge-laurel (Daphne tliymelcea), which is 
 poisonous only to certain animals, pounded it in 
 a mortar to extract the juice, soaked grains of 
 corn in it, and distributed them under bits of 
 
A FIELD MOUSE. 
 
 205 
 
206 THE OBSEQUIES OF 
 
 tile which he placed about in the fields. This 
 time his triumph was complete : a swarm of field 
 mice perished in mortal convulsions, and one of 
 them who had been used to come regularly for 
 three years to eat the peas in my meadow, was 
 there panting before my eyes, ready to yield up his 
 last breath. I was a witness to his final struggle, 
 and saw him gradually grow fixed into that 
 icy, immovable rigidity which is the companion 
 of death. 
 
 There he was, by the side of the Pear-Tree 
 where he had before passed such pleasant hours, 
 upside down on the saoad, with his feet in the air, 
 muzzle .contracted, and glassy eye. I expected to 
 see a legion of ants .arrive those fellows who are 
 so clever at cutting up a body and laying the 
 skeleton bare without dislocating a joint, when 
 a strange sound rang around me, grave and pro- 
 longed like the great bell of Notre Dame. An 
 insect had just passed about an inch from my 
 ear and pitched down on the field mouse. 
 
 It was a little smaller than a dung-beetle, but 
 
A FIELD MOUSE. 207 
 
 longer and much more active. As for his attire, 
 it was in complete conformity with his business : 
 head, body, and corselet black, with some yellow 
 hairs on them ; wing-cases or upper wings 
 divided by two yellow cross bands with broken 
 outlines ; curious antennae, with a reddish mass at 
 the end formed of four small plates ranged on 
 one another by the middle, and the last was 
 thicker, and in the shape of a little irregular 
 pointed button. In a word, he wore the true 
 garb of a fashionable undertaker, grave, dark, 
 and handsome. 
 
 The field mouse had no -cause for complaints of 
 anybody but his enemy the stout farmer. Nature 
 sent him, as soon as his decease was duly regis- 
 tered, a gravedigger with good large legs, skilful 
 in excavating ground, and carrying all his topis 
 with him to finish the job as soon as possible. 
 The Necropliorus vespillo for so is this curious 
 individual named does not work, however, with- 
 out pay. He has some eggs to lay before he 
 himself passes from life to death, and proposes to 
 
208 THE OBSEQUIES OF 
 
 bury them with the body. Flesh-feeding larvae 
 will spring from them, and they will perform 
 after several metamorphoses the duties first per- 
 formed for them. Behold our burying beetle 
 taking a tour round the field mouse, inspecting the 
 field of operations, and finding the earth friable, 
 light, and but little hardened. Could there be any- 
 thing easier for an experienced gravedigger than 
 to make a hole in it ? But how transport the 
 body to it when, made ? It was clear enough 
 that the power of the burying beetle was not 
 sufficient. "Without being a Goliath, or even a 
 David, a field mouse weighs something, and our 
 undertaker has not much more than good-will. 
 No, I am wrong ; he is endued with a marvellous 
 instinct. 
 
 Having finished his inspection, he stops a 
 moment to take time to reflect. During this 
 interval we observe a special peculiarity the 
 massive, square, powerful form of his corselet. 
 Doubtless there is good reason for it, for this is 
 what enables the insect to push its head under 
 
A FIELD MOUSE. 
 
 209 
 
210 THE OBSEQUIES OF 
 
 the mouse, slightly raising it, and to slip between 
 the body and the surface of the ground so as 
 nearly to disappear from our eyes. He stops there 
 for a long time, and we begin to lose patience. 
 What can he be doing in this inconvenient posi- 
 tion, crushed under a weight disproportioned to 
 his strength ? Does he wish to try to carry the 
 rodent, in spite of the evident folly of the attempt ? 
 No, he does not even dream of it. He has 
 just simply excavated the ground under the field 
 mouse, and it sinks slowly but with steady pro- 
 gress into the moving sand. I still distinguish 
 his muzzle, with his ornaments of long grey mous- 
 taches ; then it sinks, and shows itself in profile, 
 gets smaller, and disappears for ever ; very soon 
 the feet alone of the dead animal project from 
 the surface of the meadow; they sink and sink, 
 and are in their turn covered ; the object of the 
 Necropborus is attained ; now its larvae have an 
 asylum and a provision of victuals. 
 
 A foreign naturalist, M. Gleditsch, has given 
 some interesting details of the industry of this 
 
A FIELD MOUSE. 211 
 
 gravedigger. Going one day in pursuit of them, 
 he caught four, and put them in a great glass 
 globe half filled with earth and carefully closed. 
 Then he put in two dead frogs. In a very little 
 time one of the two frogs had been interred by 
 the Necrophori. Meanwhile their companions in 
 captivity wandered round the walls of the vase 
 trying to escape, but finding none resigned them- 
 selves to their fate and buried the other frog. 
 Then he gave them the body of a linnet. A pair 
 of our grave diggers at once set to work re- 
 moving the ground beneath the bird's body, and 
 dragging it by the feathers so as to make it go 
 down quicker. The male Necrophorus ended by 
 working at it alone for five hours. From time 
 to time he came out of the pit, climbed upon the 
 linnet, pushed it, and returned to his hole as quick 
 as possible so as not to lose a minute. 
 
 But at last even he was tired, and found that 
 he must take some repose. He returned above 
 ground, and, placing his head on the ground by 
 the side of the body, remained motionless for an 
 
 P2 
 
212 THE OBSEQUIES OF A FIELD MOUSE. 
 
 hour, without even moving the tips of his antennae. 
 When his strength was renewed, he recommenced 
 his digging operations with fresh courage. By 
 next morning the linnet had sunk an inch and 
 a half, and was quite surrounded by earth ; by 
 evening the excavator had got it down half an 
 inch more, and by the next day the bird had 
 entirely disappeared. M. Gleditsch continued to 
 give them small dead animals, which were buried 
 one after the other. He found at last by the 
 end of the fiftieth day that the four Necrophori 
 had buried in the small space that they possessed, 
 four frogs, three birds, two fish, a mole, and two 
 grasshoppers, besides the entrails of another fish 
 and two pieces of ox lung. Until further ex- 
 periments of the same kind be made, it may be 
 taken as a fact that one Necrophorus alone can 
 in two days bury a body equal to forty times 
 his own weight. 
 
 And here was I who thought before I studied 
 my breviary that work was man's privilege 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 HOURS passed on, and I went on sleeping, happy 
 in escaping the requirements of what is called the 
 world. "What things had I not seen in these great 
 enclosures ? Being rose upon being, and one exist- 
 ence fluttered forward in another. Everywhere had 
 I been witness of the presence of life, its struggles, 
 and feverish activity. It could be perceived in the 
 grass, on the leaves, on the surface of the earth, 
 underground, in the midst of the air. Its powerful 
 breath made everything fruitful, warmed the veins 
 of millions of creatures, disintegrated even the stones 
 themselves, and dragged them out of their inertia. 
 
214 . . . v . ' CONCLUSION. 
 
 How long could I have continued thus a sleep 
 full of revelations, so absorbed in the beautiful 
 picture unrolling before my eyes, respectfully 
 spelling out the hieroglyphic characters of the 
 great book of creation \ 
 
 I cannot tell. A hundred years, perhaps, like 
 that good monk of the Middle Ages, with mind 
 enraptured among the glories of the heaven, who 
 awoke with his beard white and his limbs failing 
 from age. Time in reality is nothing at all, except 
 as the stuff of which our existence is composed 
 so short, alas, so ephemeral ! In absolute truth, 
 there is no such thing as time ; the Infinite has 
 no limits ; within it are unknown the landmarks 
 that we so ingeniously place on our way as 
 we pass to measure the surface. All that I can 
 answer for is, that a very natural occurrence put 
 an end to my reveries. 
 
 At the very moment when the burying beetle 
 was casting his last shovelful of earth on the 
 stiffened body of the field mouse, a man took hold 
 of my arm and 'shook me violently. I sprang up 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 immediately in amazement, and I 
 
 never shall I forget what was before my eyes. 
 
 Before me stood the most curious-looking per- 
 sonage imaginable. I have said it was a man, 
 but any one might have made a journey from Pekin 
 to Paris without find ing even among china curiosities 
 such a fantastic specimen of our race. He had on 
 a maroon, coat, with enormous pockets, and imple- 
 ments of all kinds sticking out of them. He held 
 a butterfly-net in his hand, a magnifying-glass 
 hung from his neck, and his waistcoat was covered 
 with long pins. A swarm of beetles ornamented 
 his hat, pinned all about in the felt. 
 
 He said to me : " Sir, I believe I am doing 
 right in telling you that there is going to be 
 a storm. And we have only just time to run to 
 the farm." 
 
 It was so indeed. The sky, which had been 
 azure blue when I entered on the meadow, had 
 gradually darkened and at last become covered by 
 great heavy clouds. Some paler streaks of vapour 
 of irregular shape were displayed upon this dark 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 -., l.t,'J + 
 
CONCLUSION. 217 
 
 background, and slowly advanced towards the 
 meadow from two opposite directions. They might 
 have been compared to little ships with white sails, 
 sailing in an ocean of shadows, and rushing into 
 collision with one another stem to stem to fight by 
 the board. Around us reigned a perfect calm. The 
 air was heavy, sultry, and we had some difficulty in 
 breathing. Some birds crossed the plain with shrill 
 cries and disappeared among the bushes. Soon the 
 leaves clashed together like so many little battledores 
 moved by invisible hands. A light wind arose and 
 shook the grass, increased as it got nearer the trees 
 standing on the slopes, and rocked them violently. 
 Some large heavy drops of rain fell around us with a 
 splash- then a long roll of thunder echoing noisily 
 made my companion and myself both quicken our 
 steps towards the houses. As I walked I cast a 
 last glance towards my meadow ; I could no longer 
 see its thousand details, its tufted vegetation, and 
 mysterious inhabitants, but only its broad outlines 
 altered by the effect of the storm, and, as a horizon, 
 the sky ploughed up by lightning. 
 
218 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The new comer and I conversed as we passed 
 up the valley. He was a distinguished but ori- 
 ginal entomologist, who only employed himself on 
 one class of Coleoptera, the Buprestidse. He had 
 made a monograph of them, from the anatomical, 
 organic, and historical points of view, and at his 
 house possessed nearly all the varieties of them, in 
 a cabinet ticketed with care, with their legs 
 symmetrically extended, antennae regularly placed, 
 with their names, surnames, and distinguishing 
 markn, 
 
 I spoke to him of my recent initiation into the 
 inner mysteries of nature, the spectacles I had been 
 witness of, the marvels of the instinct of the crea- 
 tures, and their singular manners. 
 
 " How much poetry," said I to him, "what beau- 
 ties are there not beneath the tufts of wild plants we 
 carelessly tread under foot ! How much is to be 
 learnt from these various pictures of the life of the 
 smallest of creatures ! The story of the population 
 of an old Pear-Tree, simply written currents calamo, 
 would itself alone furnish a great deal of interest." 
 
CONCLUSION. 219 
 
 The collector looked at me, winking his eyes 
 
 and slightly shrugging his shoulders, and said to me : 
 
 "All this is not science. Insects are not 
 
 subjects for mere gossip, especially the JBuprestidce. 
 If a man has any pretensions to do the work well, 
 he must begin by making out a catalogue of them 
 
220 CONCLUSION. 
 
 and carefully detailing them in official language. 
 Scientific terms must never be neglected, but rather 
 freely used as tokens of depth. As for the habits 
 of animals, it is more suitable to describe them 
 soberly, and by preference rather in a concise and 
 dry than in an amusing manner. The gate of 
 the Temple of Wisdom ought to remain closed 
 against those who have not energy enough to knock 
 long at it to compel it to open to them." 
 
 " But," answered I, rather vexed with this 
 dogmatic speech, " I would wish you to remark that 
 there is interest in the thousand and one exempli- 
 fications of human life. People do not confine 
 themselves to studying the material mechanism, but 
 proceed also to inquire into it from the psycho- 
 logical point of view." 
 
 " No doubt," said he ; " no doubt. So I have 
 often been pleased with reading romances." 
 
 "And why should not the insect," I went on, 
 pursuing my argument, " the elder born in creation, 
 have, like man, not his romance I do not ask so 
 much but his true history?" 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 a. 
 
 "What is your object?" lie replied, learnedly 
 raising his forefinger to the point of his nose, which 
 was remarkably long, sharp, and inquisitive. 
 
 Said I to him, with the deepest obeisance : " To 
 make nature beloved, and thus render the approach 
 to science the easier." 
 
 These words made him thoughtful. We hurried 
 to the farm, and when we got there concluded a 
 holy alliance and pressed each other's hands with 
 cordiality. 
 
 " I was wrong," he said to me ; " there are never 
 too many workers in the Vineyard of Our Lord/' 
 
LuKDON : 
 
 R. OLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 1'RINTKRS, 
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