Bright and Shining Ones. 119 



to secure his food without exposing himself to any serious 

 risk. With his short, thick spiny legs he loosens the earth, 

 and with his flat head, which he uses as a shovel, and turning 

 himself into a z-shaped figure, hoists up the clay and upsets 

 it around the mouth of his intended dwelling. With head 

 and legs, and with a perseverance that is truly surprising, he 

 sinks in a very short time a shaft a foot in length and as 

 large in diameter as an ordinary lead-pencil. 



Especial pains are taken to see that the tunnel is suffi- 

 ciently wide, so that the little creature can crawl in with ease. 

 If he wishes to remain set fast, he sticks the back of his 

 body against the sides and rests safely with the aid of his 

 hooks. In this position he can poke his head out of the 

 ground, thus closing the entrance of his burrow, while in 

 patient waiting for some unsuspicious wayfarer to pass over. 

 As soon, however, as the luckless insect touches the top of 

 his head, he relinquishes his hold within the tunnel and 

 descends with great precipitation to the bottom, and thus his 

 victim falls into the hole, where it is seized by the powerful 

 jaws and its juices absorbed in a quiet, leisurely manner. 

 The loose earth around the opening of the tunnel gives way 

 on the approach of an insect, and thus the success of the 

 cunning Cicindela is doubly insured. 



Sometimes in the construction of a burrow, after a certain 

 depth has been reached, the young Cicindela meets with a 

 difficulty which he had not expected. A flat stone is encoun- 

 tered, and thus further progress in a vertical direction is 

 prevented. If the obstacle, on account of its size, cannot be 

 gone round, and the shaft is not deep enough for his purpose, 

 it is not unusual for him to desert it and attempt the tunnel- 

 ling of a home in some more desirable spot. He does not 

 undertake a very long journey, for he knows too well the 

 risk which he runs by so doing, as he is in danger of being 

 assaulted by secret foes in the rear, an attack which the 

 peculiar conformation of his hinder body ill fits him to resist. 

 On land he is timid and cowardly, and well might he be, but 



