The Life of the Fly 



it is as though the insect were splitting its 

 brain-pan in order to expel the contents. 

 Then the hernia rises, blunt at the end and 

 swollen into a great knob. Next, the forehead 

 closes and the hernia retreats, leaving visible 

 only a kind of shapeless muzzle. In short, a 

 frontal pouch, with deep pulsations mo- 

 mentarily renewed, becomes the instrument of 

 deliverance, the pestle wherewith the newly- 

 hatched Bluebottle bruises the sand and 

 causes it to crumble. Gradually the legs push 

 the rubbish back and the insect advances so 

 much toward the surface. 



A hard task, this exhumation by dint of the 

 blows of a cleft and palpitating head. More- 

 over, the exhausting effort has to be made at 

 the moment of greatest weakness, when the 

 insect leaves that protecting casket, its pupa. 

 It emerges from it pale, flabby and unsightly, 

 sorrily clad In the wings which, folded length- 

 wise and made shorter by their scalloped edge, 

 only just cover the top of the back. Wildly 

 bristling with hairs and coloured ashen-grey, 

 it is a piteous sight. The large set of wings, 

 suitable for flight, will spread later. For the 

 moment, it would only be in the way amid the 

 obstacles to be passed through. Later also 

 will come the fautless dress wherein the 

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