LONGHORNS AND PREY-HUNTERS 53 



there is one species that is specially noted as occurring 

 there. 



Our food, too, sometimes introduces us to more insects 

 than we care for. House flies, drowned in milk or soup, 

 or fossilised in bread, and caterpillars boiled with peas 

 or cabbage, will, of course, at once occur to one's mind ; 

 and, indeed, considering the inquisitive nature of some 

 of our household pests, it is a marvel that we do not get 

 more of them served up to table than we do. Foreign 

 beetles sometimes occur in brown sugar, easily hidden 

 amongst the crystals as long as the sugar is in the solid 

 form, but brought into undesirable prominence when it 

 has been dissolved in our coffee. The only specimen my 

 cabinet boasts of, of a certain species that is now reckoned 

 as British, though, no doubt, originally imported, was 

 thus fished out of a cup of tea. And it is not merely 

 small insects that appear in this way. I once met with 

 a fine large South American weevil in a gooseberry tart. 

 It was a handsome species, of a purplish-brown colour, 

 with some clear yellowish-white circular spots, and was 

 about half-an-inch long. It was in excellent condition, 

 and not in the slightest degree damaged by the cooking 

 it had undergone, but able to be set up as a perfectly 

 respectable cabinet specimen. I have known, too, of an 

 instance in which the shell of a pond-snail came to table 

 in a loaf, apparently having reached so strange a posi- 

 tion through the medium of the water used in mixing 

 the dough. 



Beetles, too, may be found on our doorsteps, or climb- 

 ing the walls of our houses. I once met with two 

 specimens of a rare beetle, one, in fact, which has only 

 of late years been recognised as British, climbing up a 

 pillar just outside the front door of a house. Many 

 may also be found in thatch. If an old thatched roof, 



