14 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



departments of natural history. Our friend's cliildren, 

 a boy and a girl, were taught, from the moment they 

 could distinguish insects, to treat them as objects of 

 interest and curiosity, and not to be afraid even of 

 those which wore the most repulsive appearance. 

 The little girl, for an example, when just beginnmg to 

 walk alone, encountered one day a large staphylinus 

 (Goeriiis olens? Stephens ; vulgo the deviVs coach- 

 horse), which she fearlessly seized, and did not quit 

 lier hold, though the insect grasped one of her fingers 

 in his formidable jaws. The mother, who was by, 

 knew enough of the insect to be rather alarmed for 

 the consequences, though she prudently concealed 

 her feelings from the child. She did well ; for the 

 insect was not strong enough to break the skin, and 

 the child took no notice of its attempts to bite her 

 finger. A whole series of disagreeable associations 

 with this formidable-looldng family of insects was 

 thus averted, at the very moment when a different 

 mode of acting on the part of the mother would have 

 produced the contrary effect. For more than two 

 years after this occurrence, the little girl and her 

 brother assisted in adding numerous specimens to 

 their father's collection, without the parents ever 

 having had cause, from any accident, to repent of 

 their employing themselves in this manner. The 

 sequel of the little girl's history strikingly illustrates 

 the position for which we contend. The child hap- 

 pened to be sent to a relative in the country, where 

 she was not long in having carefully instilled into 

 her mind all the usual antipathies against ' every- 

 thing that creepeth on the earth :' and though she 

 afterwards returned to her paternal home, no persua- 

 sion nor remonstrance could ever again persuade her 

 to touch a common beetle, much less a staphylinus, 

 with its tail turned up in a threatening attitude, and its 

 formidable jaws ready extended for attack or defence.'* 



