THE LOVES OF THE INSECTS. 295 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE LOVES OF THE INSECTS. 



Harmonious Amusement — Wonderful Intelligence shown by a 

 Beetle — Interrupted by a Butterfly — Fleas — Loves of the 

 Dragon-Fly — A AValk Round the Water — Water Newts — A 

 Hard Struggle for Victory — Insect Food found in the Crop of 

 a Pheasant — Angry Ants — Ant Tramps — Human Tramps. 



At the commencement of this chapter, let it be 

 understood, not only by the scientific and general 

 reader, but by all his sul)ordinates in letters, with 

 or without purchase of my Avork, that I do not 

 profess to be an entomologist. It is in my family 

 to be so, for my brother, the present Earl of 

 Berkeley, when a boy, left off birds'-nesting, and 

 sought the humbler nest of the wild bumble 

 bee, his (my brother's) proclivities being operatic, 

 for he cared nothing for the habits of insects, 

 their honey, nor how much he thwarted them, 

 but his delight was in their angry ^^mm." Often 

 and often have I seen him seated, meditatively. 



