The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



the Convolvulus soldanella, which trails 

 along the high-water mark its ropes of 

 glossy green leaves and its great pink bell- 

 flowers. Withdrawn into his white, flat, 

 heavily-keeled shell, a curious Snail, Helix 

 explanata, was slumbering, in groups, on the 

 bent grasses. 



The dry shifting sands showed here and 

 there long series of imprints, recalling, on a 

 smaller scale and under another form, the 

 tracks of little birds in the snow which used 

 to arouse a delightful flutter in my youthful 

 days. What do these imprints mean? 



I follow them, a hunter on the trail of a 

 new species. At the end of each track, by 

 digging to no great depth, I unearth a mag- 

 nificent Carabus, whose very name is almost 

 unknown to me. It is the Giant Scarites {S. 

 gig as, FAB.). 



I make him walk on the sand. He ex- 

 actly reproduces the tracks which put me on 

 the alert. It was certainly he who, questing 

 for game in the night, marked the trail with 

 his feet. He returned to his lair before day- 

 light; and now not a single Beetle is to be 

 seen in the open. 



Another characteristic thrusts itself upon 

 my notice. If I shake him for a moment 

 and then place him on the ground upon his 

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