LONDON INSECTS 103 



the lady who first met it had nerve to stay to look, she 

 would probably have seen a malicious grin on the 

 terrible insect's face, as it chuckled at the thought of 

 the mental torture with which it was to repay its 

 captor. 



If Beetles have antiquarians among them as well as 

 type-writers, the learned may some day speculate on 

 the origin of the cairn of stones and brickbats under 

 which the wing-cases, thorax, legs, and all else that 

 was mortal in their champion the direct descendant 

 of the Beetle-god worshipped in ancient Egypt slept 

 at last. 



Though use has already been made to an extent 

 almost unjustifiable of leave most kindly given by Pro- 

 fessor Owen to pilfer from his works, as this is a chapter 

 on Natural History in London, one more passage must 

 be borrowed, because, coming as it does towards the 

 end of the brilliant passage with which he sums up the 

 teaching of his lectures on the ' Generation of Insects,' 

 it shows how much, if only one knew how to do it, is to 

 be done with London materials. 



' Metropolitan duties,' he says, ' shut out much of the 

 field of Nature ; but still she may be found and studied 

 everywhere. I first learned to appreciate the true 

 nature and relations of the nominally various and dis- 

 tinct metamorphosis of insects by watching and ponder- 

 ing over the development of a Cockroach.' 



There are only two more of the orders named to 

 which our claim as Londoners has to be made good: 

 the ' nerved wings ' and ' screw wings.' 



