The Life of the Grasshopper 



legs are slightly released; the hind-legs are 

 straightened out and afford a fulcrum for the 

 sapping-work. 



The boring-tool, a repetition of the 

 Grasshoppers', is at the neck. There is here 

 a tumour that swells, subsides, throbs and 

 strikes the obstacle with pistonlike regularity. 

 A tiny and most tender cervical bladder en- 

 gages in a struggle with quartz. At the 

 sight of this capsule of glair striving to over- 

 come the hardness of the mineral, I am 

 seized with pity. I come to the unhappy 

 creature's assistance by slightly damping the 

 layer to be passed through. 



Despite my intervention, the task is so 

 arduous that, In an hour, I see the indefati- 

 gable one make a progress of hardly a 

 twenty-fifth of an inch. How you must la- 

 bour, you poor little thing, how you must 

 persevere with your throbbing head and 

 writhing loins, before you can clear a pass- 

 age for yourself through the thin layer 

 which my kindly drop of water has softened 

 for you ! 



The ineffectual efforts of the tiny mite 

 tell us plainly that the emergence into the 

 light of day Is an enormous undertaking. In 

 which, but for the aid of the exit-tunnel, the 



398 



