The Mantis: her Hunting 



times have a good deal of difficulty in making 

 up my couples, for there is an appalling con- 

 sumption of these dwarfs in the cages. Let 

 us keep these atrocities for later and speak 

 first of the females. 



They are great eaters, whose maintenance, 

 when it has to last for some months, is none 

 too easy. The provisions, which are nibbled 

 at disdainfully and nearly all wasted, have 

 to be renewed almost every day. I trust that 

 the Mantis is more economical on her native 

 bushes. When game is not plentiful, no 

 doubt she devours every atom of her catch; 

 in my cages she is extravagant, often drop- 

 ping and abandoning the rich morsel after 

 a few mouthfuls, without deriving any fur- 

 ther benefit from it. This appears to be her 

 particular method of beguiling the tedium of 

 captivity. 



To cope with these extravagant ways I 

 have to employ assistants. Two or three 

 small local idlers, bribed by the promise of 

 a slice of melon or bread-and-butter, go 

 morning and evening to the grass-plots in 

 the neighbourhood and fill their game-bags 

 — cases made of reed-stumps — with live Lo- 

 custs and Grasshoppers. I on my side, net 

 in hand, make a daily circuit of my enclosure, 



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