56 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



facts in Natural History, views this unfortunate and mis 

 shapen insect with good-natured pity and sympathy. The 

 very village boys abstain from tormenting him, partly per- 

 haps from their feelings of kindly contempt; more because 

 he is too slow and stupid for his chase to cause any excite- 

 ment ; most of all because he parts with his legs and wings 

 so willingly that there can be no pleasure in tormenting 

 a creature who does not care whether he loses them ornot. 

 The Tipida is spoken of by rustics as Gaffer-long-legs, some- 

 times as Peter or Harry-long-legs, and is credited with a 

 character for harmlessness and blundering well-meaningness, 

 which is sufficiently well deserved in his state as a perfect 

 insect, but is wide of the mark indeed in his larva stage. The 

 wrinkled tube is one of the most voracious of creatures, 

 and nothing comes amiss to it. The roots of grass, turnips, 

 potatoes, and, indeed, almost all vegetables, are equally 

 welcome. When the villa gardener sees with dismay his 

 cherished little piece of lawn turn yellow and gradually 

 wither up, he knows, or ought to know, that it is the work 

 of the grub of the daddy-long-legs. He had, indeed, in the 

 autumn watched swarms of these creatures blundering about 

 on the grass, taking short flights of a foot or two, and settling 

 down again, but it did not then strike him that each and 

 every one of them was hard at work laying eggs, and that 

 their seemingly meaningless flights were only movements 

 from crevice to crevice in the soil, an egg being inserted in 

 the ground whenever the Tipula could find a spot in which 

 she could introduce it. The work of maternity once com- 

 pleted, the daddy-long-legs waits till nightfall, and then 

 hastens to commit suicide at the first friendly light. As 

 many will, if an opportunity be offered, perform this speedy 



