THE STAG-BEETLE 77 



covery he made of a curiously striking resemblance in 

 shape between our most elegantly made carriages and 

 the bodies of wasps, the resemblance being heightened 

 by a similarity of colouring seen in the lines and bands 

 of vivid yellows and reds on a polished black ground. 

 This likeness between insect and carriage does not 

 appear so striking at this day owing to a change in 

 the fashion towards a more sombre colour in the 

 vehicles; their funeral blacks, dark blues, and greens 

 being now seldom relieved with bright yellows and 

 reds. The stag-beetle, too, when he goes away with 

 heavy flight always gives one the idea of some kind 

 of machine or vehicle, not like the aerial phaeton of 

 the wasp or hornet, with its graceful lines and strongly- 

 contrasted colours, but an oblong, ponderous, armour- 

 plated car, furnished with a beak, and painted a deep 

 uniform brown. 



Birds, especially the more aerial insectivorous kinds, 

 have the habit of flying at and teasing any odd or 

 grotesque-looking creature they may see on the wing 

 as a bat, for instance. I have seen small birds dart at 

 a passing stag, but on coming near they turn tail and 

 fly from him, frightened perhaps at his formidable 

 appearance and loud noise. 



Notwithstanding his lumbering, blundering ways, 

 when the stag is abroad in search of the doe, you 

 may see that he is endowed with a sense and faculty 

 so exquisite as to make it appear almost miraculous 

 in the sureness of its action. The void air, as he sweeps 



