60 THE REPORT OF THE No. 36 



claws drawn back, two wrestlers assume the acrobat's ^ straight bend/ that is to 

 say, resting only on the fore-quarters, they raise the whole back of the body, so 

 much so that the chest displays the four little lung-sacs uncovered. Then the 

 tails, held vertically erect in a straight line, exchange mutual rubs, glide one over 

 tlie other, while their extremities are hooked together and repeatedly fastened and 

 unfastened. Suddenly, tlie friendly pyramid falls to pieces and each runs otf hur- 

 riedly, without ceremony.^' 



Again: "Two scorpions face each other, with claws outstretched and fingers 

 clasped. It is a quastion of a friendly grasp of the hand and not the prelude of 

 a battle, for thfi two partners behave to each other in a most peaceful way. There 

 is one of either sex. One is paunchy and browner than the other: that is the 

 female; the other ie comparatively slim and pale: that is the male. With their 

 tails prettily curled, the couple stroll with measured steps along the pane. The 

 male is ahead and walks backwards, without jolt or jerk, without any resistance 

 to overcome. The female follows " obediently, clasped by her finger-tips and face 

 to face with her leader. . . . Often they tack about. It is always the male 

 who decides which fresh direction the pair shall take. Without releasing her hands, 

 he turns gracefully to the left or right about and places himself side by side with 

 his companion. Then, for a moment, with his tail laid flat, he strokes her spine. 

 The other stands motionless, impassive." 



And again: "The idyll of the evening is followed, during the night, by a 

 hideous tragedy. JNext morning, we find the scorpioness under the potsherd of the 

 previous _:day. The little male is by her side, but slain and more or less devoured. 

 He lacks the head, a claw, a pair of legs. I place the corpse in the open, on the 

 threshold of the home. All day long the' recluse does ?"iot touch it. When night 

 returns she goes out, and, meeting the defunct on her pa'^sage, carries him off to 

 a distance to give him a decent burial, that is to finish eating him." 



Fabre has furnished characteristic descriptions of several species of flies. 

 published in " The Life of the Fly." The following extracts are taken from his 

 chapter on the Grey Flesh Flies : — 



" Two flies of the genus Sarcophaga frequent my slaughter-yard : Sarcophaga 

 carnaria and Sarcophaga lin>morrhoidalis, whose abdomen ends in a red speck. The 

 first species, which is a little larger than the second, is more numerous, and does 

 the best part of the work in the open-air shambles of the pans. It is this fly, 

 also, who, at intervals and nearly always alone, hastens to the bait exposed on 

 the window-sill. She comes up suddenly, timidly. Soon she calms herself and no 

 longer thinks of fleeing when I draw near, for the dish suits her. She is sur- 

 prisingly quick about her work. Twice over — — Buzz ! Buzz ! — ^the tip of her 

 abdomen touches the meat ; and the thing is done : a group of vermin wriggles 

 out. releases itself and disperses so nimbly that I have no time to take my lens 

 and connt them -accurately. As seen by the naked eye, there were a dozen of 

 them. What has become of them ? One would think they had gone into the flesh, 

 at the very spot where they were laid, so quickly have they disappeared. But 

 that dive into a substance of some consistency is impossible to these new-born 

 v,^eaklings. Where are they ? I find them more or less everywhere in the creases 

 of the meat ; singly, and already gropino- with their mouths." 



" Let us first consider the grub. It is a sturdy maggot, easy to distinguish 

 from the Greenbottle's by its larger girth, and especially by the way in which its 

 body terminates behind. There is here a sudden ibreaking-ofP, hollowed into a 

 deep cup. At the Viottom of this cra'ter are two l>reathing-holes, two stigmata 



