The Mantis: her Hunting 



jacket. For one who is not meant to 

 leave the dry grass and the stones, this ab- 

 breviated costume is more suitable than 

 superfluous gauze furbelows. The Grey 

 Mantis is right to retain but a mere vestige 

 of the cumbrous sails. 



Is the other wrong to keep her wings, to 

 exaggerate them, even though she never 

 flies? Not at all. The Praying Mantis 

 hunts big game. Sometimes a formidable 

 prey appears in her hiding-place. A direct 

 attack might be fatal. The thing to do is 

 first to intimidate the new-comer, to conquer 

 his resistance by terror. With this object 

 she suddenly unfurls her wings into a ghost's 

 winding-sheet. The huge sails incapable of 

 flight are hunting-implements. This strata- 

 gem is not needed by the little Grey Mantis, 

 who captures feeble prey, such as Gnats and 

 new-born Locusts. The two huntresses, who 

 have similar habits and, because of their 

 stoutness, are neither of them able to fly, are 

 dressed to suit the difficulties of the ambus- 

 cade. The first, an impetuous amazon, pui^s 

 her wings into a threatening standard; the 

 second, a modest fowler, reduces them to a 

 pair of scanty coat-tails. 



In a fit of hunger, after a fast of some 



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