THE CIGALE LEAVES ITS BURROW 19 



walls are neatly daubed, plastered with a sort of clay-like 

 mortar. They are not precisely smooth, indeed they are 

 distinctly rough ; but their irregularities are covered with 

 a layer of plaster, and the crumbling material, soaked in 

 some glutinous liquid and dried, is held firmly in place. 



The larva can climb up and down, ascend nearly to 

 the surface, and go down into its chamber of refuge, 

 without bringing down, with his claws, the continual 

 falls of material which would block the burrow, make 

 ascent a matter of difficulty, and retreat impossible. The 

 miner shores up his galleries with uprights and cross- 

 timbers ; the builder of underground railways supports 

 the sides and roofs of his tunnels with a lining of brick 

 or masonry or segments of iron tube ; the larva of the 

 Cigale, no less prudent an engineer, plasters the walls of 

 its burrow with cement, so that the passage is always 

 free and ready for use. 



If I surprise the creature just as it is emerging from the 

 soil in order to gain a neighbouring bough and there 

 undergo transformation, I see it immediately make a 

 prudent retreat, descending to the bottom of its burrow 

 without the slightest difficulty — a proof that even when 

 about to be abandoned for ever the refuge is not encum- 

 bered with rubbish. 



The ascending shaft is not a hurried piece of work, 

 scamped by a creature impatient to reach the sunlight. 

 It is a true dwelling, in which the larva may make a 

 long stay. The plastered walls betray as much. Such 

 precautions would be useless in the case of a simple 

 exit abandoned as soon as made. We cannot doubt that 

 the burrow is a kind of meteorological observatory, and 

 that its inhabitant takes note of the weather without. 



