The Method of the Calicurgi 



poor Lycosa, quick, a bite; and it's all up 

 with your persecutor! But you refrain, I 

 know not why, and your reluctance is the 

 saving of the rash invader. The silly Sheep 

 does not reply to the butcher's knife by 

 charging with lowered horns. Can it be that 

 you are the Pompilus' Sheep? 



My two subjects are reinstalled in my 

 study under their wire-gauze covers, with 

 bed of sand, reed-stump burrow and fresh 

 honey, complete. Here they find again 

 their first Lycosae, fed upon Locusts. Co- 

 habitation continues for three weeks with- 

 out other incidents than scuffles and threats 

 which become less frequent day by day. No 

 serious hostility is displayed on either side. 

 At last the Calicurgi die: their day is over. 

 A pitiful end after such an enthusiastic be- 

 ginning. 



Shall I abandon the problem? Why, not 

 a bit of it ! I have encountered greater dif- 

 ficulties, but they have never deterred me 

 from a warmly-cherished project. Fortune 

 favours the persevering. She proves as 

 much by offering me, in September, a fort- 

 night after the death of my Tarantula-hunt- 

 resses, another Calicurgus, captured for the 

 first time. This is the Harlequin Calicurgus 

 (C scurra, LEP.), who sports the same 

 3Z3 



