FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



slender liooks of the Glow-worm can find their way in 

 through the gap, and in a moment the victim is made un- 

 conscious, and can be eaten in comfort. 



Now, a Snail perched on top of a stalk is very easily 

 upset. The slightest struggle, the most feeble wriggle 

 on his part, would dislodge him; he would fall to the 

 ground, and the Glow-worm would be left without food. 

 It is necessary for the Snail to be made instantly un- 

 conscious of pain, or he would escape; and it must be 

 done with a touch so delicate that it does not shake him 

 from his stalk. And that, I think, is why the Glow- 

 worm possesses his strange surgical instrument. 



n 



HIS ROSETTE 



The Glow-worm not only makes his victim insensible 

 while he is poised on the side of a dry grass-stalk, but 

 he eats him in the Same dangerous position. And his 

 preparations for his meal are by no means simple. 



What is his manner of consuming it? Does he 

 really eat, that is to say, does he divide his food into 

 pieces, does he carve it into minute particles, which are 

 afterwards ground by a chewing-apparatus? I think 

 not. I never see a trace of solid nourishment on my 



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