THE BLUEBOTTLE 107 



skin which will be as discouraging to the Fly as the 

 natural skin. Linnets, some with deep wounds, others 

 almost intact, are placed one by one in paper envelopes 

 similar to those in which the nursery-gardener keeps his 

 seeds, envelopes just folded, without being stuck. The 

 paper is quite ordinary and of middling thickness. Torn 

 pieces of newspaper serve the purpose. 



These sheaths with the corpses inside them are freely 

 exposed to the air, on the table in my study, where they 

 are visited, according to the time of day, in dense shade 

 and in bright sunlight. Attracted by the effluvia from 

 the dead meat, the Bluebottles haunt my laboratory, the 

 windows of which are always open. I see them daily 

 alighting on the envelopes and very busily exploring 

 them, apprised of the contents by the gamy smell. Their 

 incessant coming and going is a sign of intense cupidity ; 

 and yet none of them decides to lay on the bags. They 

 do not even attempt to slide their ovipositor through the 

 slits of the folds. The favorable season passes and not 

 an egg is laid on the tempting wrappers. All the mothers 

 abstain, judging the slender obstacle of the paper to be 

 more than the vermin will be able to overcome. 

 ^ This caution on the Fly's part does not at all surprise 

 me : motherhood everywhere has great gleams of perspi- 

 cacity. What does astonish me is the following result. 

 The parcels containing the Linnets are left for a whole 

 year uncovered on the table; they remain there for a 

 second year and a third. I inspect the contents from time 

 to time. The little birds are intact, with unrumpled 

 feathers, free from smell, dry and light, like mummies. 



