68 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



be transfigured — a brilliant metallic -hued beetle, 

 perhaps flashing with bronzy gold or glittering 

 like an emerald — the beautiful cicindela, or tiger- 

 beetle, known to the entomologist as the most 

 agile winged among the coleopterous tribe; 

 known to the populace, perhaps, simply as a 

 bright glittering fly that revels in the hot sum- 

 mer sands of the sea-shore or dusty country road, 

 making its short spans of glittering flight from 

 the very feet of the observer. 



If we capture one of them with 

 our butterfly-net he will be found 

 to bear a general resemblance to 

 the portrait here indicated — a 

 slender - legged, proportionably 

 large-headed beetle, with formid- 

 able jaws capable of wide exten- 

 sion, and re-enforced by an insatiate carnivorous 

 hunger inherited from his former estate. 



It will thus be seen that all the holes which we 

 observe in the ground are not ant-holes ; nor, in- 

 deed, are they monopolized by the tiger- beetles. 

 There were other tunnels which I saw dug in my 

 square yard of earth on that morning, which, while 

 not of quite such depth, represented equally deep- 

 laid plans. 



While observing my cicindelas on that morn- 



