256 ANIMAL CANNONEERS AND SHARP-SHOOTERS. 



in cities it may always remain a mystery why one berry, looking 

 just like another, should taste and smell so differently ; but all 

 barefooted boys and sunbonneted girls from the country who have 

 picked the wild strawberries on the hill-sides, or scratched their 

 hands and faces in raspberry patches, know well the angular green 

 or brown bugs that leave a loathsome trail behind them ; and they 

 will tell you, too, that the bugs themselves are worse than their 

 trail, for it is a lucky youngster that has not taken one of these 

 insects into his mouth by mistake with a handful of berries," 



The common brown bombardier, stink-bug, or sour-bug, is an 

 animal of no little intelligence, as any one who has watched its 

 manoeuvres when in the presence of an enemy will readily admit. 

 On such an occasion the bombardier reminds one of a man-of- 

 war that is manoeuvring for a favourable position when about to 

 engage in a naval combat. It endeavours to keep the side of its 

 body toward the enemy, for its artillery is placed on the lower 

 side of its body, one, two, sometimes three, small weapons on 

 each side. When the enemy has come within range, this astute 

 little warrior elevates the side of its body that is next to its foe, 

 thus bringing its guns to bear, and then fires a broadside of acrid, 

 ill-smelling fluid at its opponent. If its molester still continues 

 its attacks, the bombardier will quickly turn, elevate its other side, 

 and fire its remaining broadside. The stink-bug is commonly 

 victorious at its first volley; but sometimes the enemy is persistent 

 and continues to harass this insect hurler of stink-pots until the 

 creature exhausts all its ammunition. What does it do then ? It 

 resorts to a subterfuge that is practised by many other animals, 

 even by man himself : it feigns death. It draws its legs beneath 

 its body, retracts its antennae, and sinks to the ground, to all 

 appearance as dead as Shakespeare's famous door-nail. Its foe, 

 believing that it is dead, abandons it, for it seems a silly and use- 

 less procedure to maltreat and mutilate a dead opponent. The 

 cunning stink-bug, as soon as its enemy departs, comes to life, 

 and in half-an-hour is ready for another combat, so quickly does it 

 acquire another supply of ammunition. The bombardier's cannon 

 are small glands situated on the lower side of the body near the 

 middle legs. These glands secrete an acrid, foetid fluid, which, by 

 a voluntary effort of the animal, is ejaculated at its enemy. 



