THE ELEPHANT-BEETLE 239 



Here I can see some reader shrug his shoulders. 

 Well, if the only end of life is to make money by 

 hook or by crook, such questions are certainly 

 ridiculous. 



Happily there are some to whom nothing in the 

 majestic riddle of the universe is little. They know 

 of what humble materials the bread of thought is 

 kneaded ; a nutriment no less necessary than the bread 

 made from wheat ; and they know that both labourers 

 and inquirers nourish the world with an accumulation 

 of crumbs. 



Let us take pity on the question, and proceed. 

 Without seeing it at work, we already suspect that the 

 fantastic beak of the Balaninus is a drill analogous to 

 those which we ourselves use in order to perforate hard 

 materials. Two diamond-points, the mandibles, form the 

 terminal armature of the drill. Like the Larinidae, but 

 under conditions of greater difficulty, the Curculionidae 

 must use the implement in order to prepare the way for 

 the installation of their eggs. 



But however well founded our suspicion may be, it 

 is not a certitude. I can only discover the secret by 

 watching the insect at work. 



Chance, the servant of those that patiently solicit it, 

 grants me a sight of the acorn-beetle at work, in the 

 earlier half of October. My surprise is great, for at 

 this late season all industrial activity is as a rule at 

 an end. The first touch of cold and the entomological 

 season is over. 



To-day, moreover, it is wild weather ; the bise is 

 moaning, glacial, cracking one's lips. One needs a 

 robust faith to go out on such a day in order to inspect 



