LIVING 



NO more remarkable creature exists, perhaps, than the 

 little Brachinus fumans, which is so very common in 

 the early spring. Damp situations are affected by it, but it 

 is seldom met with except by insect-hunters, for it conceals 

 itself generally under stones, as many as a half-dozen indi- 

 viduals often being found in company in a single locality. 

 Banks of tidal rivers afford excellent hunting-grounds in 

 England for Brachinus, but in America low, dank woods and 

 borders of streams are the places where one must look to 

 discover its presence. 



When once you have made the acquaintance of so remark- 

 able a stranger you can never afterwards fail to recognize him 

 in your travels. He is peculiar, but not at all distinguished 

 in looks, as some of his brethren. Picture a yellowish-red 

 beetle, with a bluish frock-coat, which his wing-covers resem- 

 ble, and possessed of a short, narrow head, a heart-shaped 

 prothorax, as the front of the chest-segments is called, and a 

 long, broad abdomen, three times the size of the rest of his 

 body, and you have a tolerably fair idea of Brachinus. 



But it is not so much his odd shape as a most extraordi- 

 nary property he possesses, which is singularly unique in the 

 animal kingdom, that makes him an object of interest and 

 curiosity. Deep down in his most marvellous body a fluid, 

 highly volatile in its nature, is elaborated, which the little 

 creature can retain or expel at his pleasure. It is only, how- 

 ever, when alarmed that he utilizes this fluid in small quan- 

 tities in defense, but its effect is wonderful, for in coming into 

 contact with the atmosphere it immediately volatilizes and 



