The Life of the Caterpillar 



phori, in quest of an establishment for their 

 young, hasten from the fields to my putrefy- 

 ing Moles. Both are informed by a potent 

 smell, which offends our nostrils sixty yards 

 away, but which travels ahead and delights 

 them at distances where our own power of 

 scent ceases. 



The hydnocystis, the Bolboceras' treat, has 

 none of these violent emanations, capable of 

 being diffused through space; it is devoid of 

 smell, at least to us. The insect that hunts for 

 it does not come from a distance; it inhabits 

 the very places where the cryptogam lies. 

 However faint the effluvia of the under- 

 ground morsel, the prying epicure, equipped 

 for the purpose, has every facility for per- 

 ceiving them: he operates close by, on the 

 surface of the soil. The Dog's case is the 

 same: he goes along searching, with his nose 

 to the ground. Then, too, the real trufHe, the 

 essential object of his quest, possesses a most 

 pronounced odour. 



But what are we to say of the Great Pea- 

 cock and the Banded Monk, making their 

 way to the female born in captivity? They 

 hasten from the ends of the horizon. What 

 do they perceive at that distance? Is it really 



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