THE HAZEL. 240 



lays a single egg. The soft pithy substance which it 

 contains not being adapted for the sustenance of the grub, 

 the egg remains without undergoing any change for some 

 weeks ; but when the kernel has nearly acquired its full size, 

 a small white grub is hatched, which immediately begins to 

 feed on the nut, and when full-grown shows, that although 

 its sole food has hitherto been of the softest kind, it is 

 provided with a powerful apparatus for gnawing a very 

 hard substance. About the time that the nut is ripe, the 

 insect prepares for a change of habitation by boring a 

 hole through the shell and forcing its way out. It then 

 falls to the ground and buries itself in the earth, where it 

 constructs a cell and is changed into a pupa, and in the 

 following season comes forth as a perfect insect. We may 

 well wonder at the instinct which directs this little beetle 

 to choose, from among all the trees of the forest, the one 

 which alone will afterwards bear abundance of food for 

 its offspring, and food too which it never eats itself; and 

 it is no less remarkable that it appears to know if the nut 

 has been already occupied by some other insect of the 

 same kind, for wo never find two grubs inclosed in the 

 same shell. It can have gained its knowledge neither by 

 experience nor by education ; for it lives but a single year 

 in its perfect state, and it can have had no communication 

 with others wiser than itself, for all are equally ignorant 

 of their own history. We can therefore only conclude 

 that in all its operations it has been guided by an intel- 

 ligence superior to its own, by Him, namely, whose care 

 is equally bestowed on the minutest and on the most 

 important of His works. 



The larvtB of other insects feed on the nut; but the 

 depredations committed by squirrels, where these beautiful 

 but mischievous little animals abound, exceed those of 

 all the others. The food of the squirrel varies with the 

 seasons : in winter and spring it feeds on buds and the 

 bark of trees, and is said also to devour insects. In plan- 

 tations of Larch it often does great mischief, by stripping 



