Further Observations 



world, we had a very peculiar spring in this 

 year 1906. It snowed hard on the 22nd and 

 23rd of March. Never in this district had 

 I seen so heavy and especially so late a fall 

 of snow. It was followed by an endless 

 drought, which turned the country into a 

 dust-heap. 



In the apparatus, in which my watchful 

 care maintained the requisite moisture, the 

 mother Minotaur seemed protected against 

 this calamity. There is nothing to tell us, 

 however, that she was not fully cognizant, 

 through the thickness of the planks, of what 

 was happening, or rather about to happen, 

 outside. Gifted with an exquisite sense of 

 atmosphere, she had a presentiment of the 

 terrible drought, fatal to grubs lodged too 

 near the surface. Being unable to reach the 

 deep places recommended by instinct, she 

 died without laying her eggs. I see no other 

 reason than this distrustful meteorology 

 capable of accounting for the facts. 



The second apparatus, two days after the 

 installation of the couple, provides me with 

 a grievous surprise. The mother, for no 

 apparent cause, leaves the house, goes to 

 earth in the sand on the tray and does not 

 budge, heedless of the cell where her horned 

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