374 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



insect. The poison instilled into the wound thus made, 

 although not causing immediate death, has a paralysing 

 effect upon the muscles, and quickly deprives the insect of 

 struggling powers, and consequently of all chance of escape. 

 If the insect is a small one — one in fact that can be easily 

 held in the pincers and eaten without trouble while alive — 

 a scorpion does not always waste poison upon it. Thus I 

 have seen a Parabuthus (one of the genera of scorpions) 

 seize a bluebottle fly, transfer it straight to its mandibles, 

 and pick it to pieces with them while still kicking. . . . 

 An insect is literally picked to pieces by the small chelate 

 mandibles, these two jaws being thrust out and retracted 

 alternately, first one and then the other being used ; the 

 soft juices and tissues thus exposed being drawn into the 

 minute mouth by the sucking action of the stomach." 



Old fables die hard, and none is more persistent than 

 the legend that the scorpion, when surrounded by a ring 

 of fire, puts an end to its existence by turning its tail 

 over its back and stinging itself to death. No matter that 

 naturalists have proved that their poison is innocuous to 

 their own kind, and that scorpions are killed by a very 

 moderate elevation of temperature, the old, old story is still 

 as firmly believed as ever by the general public. 



In an article published in the ninth edition of the 

 " Encyclopaedia Britannica," the Rev. O. P. Cambridge 

 refused to believe that there was any substratum of fact in the 

 popular legend, but Mr. Pocock, writing in Nature for 1893, 

 is more merciful. He thinks, indeed, that a scorpion may 

 occasionally sting itself, either by a random blow for an 

 unseen enemy, or when it has been irritated by the contact 

 of any strong stimulant, such as acid or mustard, or even 

 that in the madness of pain it may be driven to turn 

 its weapon on itself; but that in any case there is an 



