The Life of the Grasshopper 



The usual dimensions are four centimetres 

 in length and two in width. 1 The colour is 

 as golden as a grain of wheat. When set 

 alight, the material burns readily and ex- 

 hales a faint smell of singed silk. The sub- 

 stance is in fact akin to silk; only, instead 

 of being drawn into thread, it has curdled 

 into a frothy mass. When the nest is fixed 

 to, a branch, the base goes round the nearest 

 twigs, envelops them and assumes a shape 

 which varies in accordance with the support 

 encountered; when it is fixed to a flat sur- 

 face, the under side, which is always 

 moulded on the support, is itself flat. The 

 nest thereupon takes the form of a semi- 

 ellipsoid, more or less blunt at one end, 

 tapering at the other and often ending in a 

 short, curved tail. 



Whatever the support, the upper surface 

 of the nest is systematically convex. We 

 can distinguish in it three well-marked longi- 

 tudinal zones. The middle one, which is 

 narrower than the others, is composed of 

 little plates or scales arranged in pairs and 

 overlapping like the tiles of a roof. The 

 edges of these plates are free, leaving two 

 parallel rows of slits or fissures through 



1 1.56 in. X .78 in. — Translator's Note. 

 148 



