244 ANT-LION'S SNARE. 



precipitated into the pit and jaws of its wily destroyer. When 

 its juices are all extracted, the carcase of the victimized insect 

 is thrown out of the murderer's den. 



Great ingenuity, industry, and perseverance are exemplified 

 by the ant-lion in construction of his curious pitfall, a work 

 which, as performed either at large or in boxes of sand, 

 several continental naturalists have observed and described. 

 We learn, in detail, from their pages, how that, having chosen 

 (when at liberty for choice) a proper soil light and sandy 

 the grub marks out a circle for the mouth of its funnel pit ; 

 how it then proceeds, having placed itself within this circle, 

 to scoop out the intended hollow, an operation which it effects 

 by jerking out with its broad flat head repeated loads of sand 

 shovelled previously thereon by one leg, that always nearest 

 to the centre of the circle. This, having once described, 

 walking and working backwards, it turns round, and gives 

 relief to the working limb by bringing that opposite into 

 action, thus proceeding till the excavation is complete. Before, 

 however, this desired end is obtained, the patience and perse- 

 verance of the trap-maker are often severely taxed in the 

 removal of stones, which, after all the fine sand is got rid of, 

 often remain to impair the uniformity and use of its sliding 

 pitfall. In this task, like Sysiphus, he is often baffled, but 

 he generally accomplishes it at last by balancing the stones 

 one at a time upon his back, and then bearing them back- 

 wards up the loose sandy acclivity of his snare. 



