278 FABLES ABOUT THE EARWIG. 



semble in these warm nests ; and every fourth or fifth day, a 

 labourer, armed with a pitchfork, scoops up the manure at a 

 single stroke, and scatters it over the ground, while another 

 crushes the unfortunate Gryllotalpcz as fast as they make their 

 appearance. 



THE EARWIG. 



Next to the domestic fly, the earwig is, perhaps, one of our 

 commonest, and, let us add, one of our most troublesome, 

 insects. Whence comes its popular appellation? From a 

 mere fable. To amuse the silly alas ! how great their num- 

 ber ! marvelling, without doubt, at the spectacle of an insect's 

 tail armed with strong pincers, some jester wished to transform 

 it into a terrible animal ; and therefore he pretended that it 

 introduced itself into the human ear, and from thence pene- 

 trated to the brain, with the view of driving out its proprietor, 

 i.e., the mind or spirit which animates it. Only, the originator 

 of this absurd bugbear forgot one little fact : there is no open- 

 ing by which the ear can communicate with the brain ! As for 

 the pincers, they are not so formidable as they appear. This 

 character, however, has been considered a sufficient foundation 



by the naturalists, even by Lin- 

 naeus himself, for the insect's 

 scientific name, Forficula auri- 

 cularia, which is almost literally 

 translated by the French oreille- 

 pince, our English earwig 01 



FIG. 64. The Earwig (Forficula * 



ear-piercer. (Fig. 64.) 

 What dress is to man, their wings are to insects ; by these 



