The Sloe-Weevil 



varnish. As for the rest of the fruit, I leave 

 it as it was. 



This done, let us wait, but leave the sloes 

 in the open air, as they are, on the bush. 

 There the gummy concretions will not grow 

 soft — which would not fail to happen in a 

 glass jar — merely by means of the moisture 

 supplied by the fruits themselves. 



By the end of July, the sloes left in their 

 natural state give me the first emigrants; 

 the exodus goes on through part of August. 

 The means of exit is a round hole, very 

 cleanly cut, similar to that made by the Nut- 

 weevil. Just like the grub of the last- 

 named, the emigrant passes itself through 

 the draw-plate and releases itself by a feat 

 of gymnastics in which it dilates the part of 

 the body already extracted with the humours 

 forced out of the part still imprisoned. 



The exit-door is sometimes one with the 

 narrow entrance; more often it is beside it; 

 but it is never, absolutely never, outside the 

 bare space that forms the bottom of the 

 crater. The grub seems to loathe finding 

 the soft pulp of the sloe in front of its man- 

 dibles. Admirably adapted for chiselling 

 hard wood, the tool would perhaps become 



221 



