The Anthrax 



belly, never a recoil to interrupt the feast and 

 to take breath awhile. The vivacious animal 

 always goes forward, chewing, swallowing, di- 

 gesting, until the caterpillar's skin is emptied 

 of its contents. Once seated at table, it does 

 not budge as long as the victuals last. To 

 tease it with a straw is not always enough to 

 induce it to withdraw its head outside the 

 wound; I have to use violence. When re- 

 moved by force and then left to its own de- 

 vices, the creature hesitates for a long time, 

 stretches itself and mouths around, without 

 trying to open a passage through a new 

 wound. It needs the attacking-point that has 

 just been abandoned. If it finds the spot, it 

 makes its way in and resumes the work of eat- 

 ing; but its future is jeopardized from this 

 time forward, for the game, now perhaps 

 tackled at inopportune points, is liable to go 

 bad. 



With the Anthrax' grub, there is none of 

 this mangling, none of this persistent clinging 

 to the entrance-wound. I have but to tease 

 it with the tip of a hair-pencil and forthwith 

 it retires; and the lens reveals no wound at the 

 abandoned spot, no such effusion of blood as 

 there would be if the skin were perforated. 

 When its sense of security is restored, the grub 



35 



