220 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. XIII. 



But looking at its form alone, a person imperfectly 

 acquainted with its habits and economy would be 

 apt to set it down as the most helpless of all created 

 animals. Its food consists solely of the juices of 

 other insects, particularly ants ; but at first view it 

 appears impossible that it should ever secure a sin- 

 gle meal ; for its powers of locomotion are so feeble, 

 that it can walk only at a very slow pace, and that 

 backwards ; he never follows his prey, and would 

 sooner perish with hunger than advance one step 

 towards it. Thus accomplished for the pursuit, it 

 stands but a poor chance of being able to hunt down 

 an active ant ; nor would his prospects be mended 

 by standing still ; its grim and forbidding aspect is 

 such as to deter every vagrant insect from venturing 

 within its reach. In the choice of its food the insect 

 shows itself a finished epicure ; however pressed by 

 the calls of appetite, it will taste no carcass except 

 what it has itself killed : and of this it only extracts 

 the finer juices. Thus delicate in its appetite, and 

 thus apparently incapable of securing a supply of 

 food, what is to become of the poor ant-lion 1 How 

 does an insect, thus to all appearance unfitted by its 

 natural habits to provide a supply even of the coarsest 

 food, contrive to secure a succession of delicacies ? 

 It accomplishes, by the refinement of art and stra- 

 tagem, what would utterly baffle all its open exer- 

 tions — it excavates a conical pit ; and, concealing 

 itself at the bottom, calmly lies in wait for any un- 

 lucky insect Avhich may chance to stumble over the 

 margin and fall into its den. 



For the purpose of excavating this trap, it seeks 

 a spot of loose and dry sand, under the shelter of 

 an old wall, or at the foot of a tree. Two circum- 

 stances incline it to select a spot of this description ; 

 in such a soil its snare is constructed with the least 

 possible trouble ; and the prey most agreeable to 

 its appetite particularly abounds in such places. 

 Having fixed upon a spot proper for its purpose, it 



