HABITS OF FEMALE 163 



third larger than the male, of a fuller figure, and 

 adorned with a long, broadsword - shaped ovipositor, 

 which projects beyond her wings like a tail. She 

 has rather a grand air too, and is both silent and 

 inactive. Hers is a life of listening and waiting; 

 and the waiting is long days and weeks go by, and 

 the males stridulate, and fight, and pay no attention 

 to her. But how patient she can be may be seen 

 in the case of one which I took from her heath 

 and placed on a well-berried branch of wild guelder 

 on my table. There she was contented to rest, 

 usually on one of the topmost clusters, for many days, 

 almost always with the window open at the side of 

 her branch, so that she could easily have made her 

 escape. The wind blew in upon her, and outside the 

 world was green and lit with sunshine. One could 

 almost fancy that she was conscious of her fine appear- 

 ance in her pale vivid green colour, touched in certain 

 lights with glaucous blue, on her throne of clustered 

 carbuncles. At intervals of an hour or two she would 

 move about a little, and find some other perch; only 

 the waving of her long, fine antennae appeared to 

 show that she was alive to much that was going on 

 about her in her world. The one thing that excited 

 her was the stridulating of one of the males con- 

 fined in a glass vessel on the same table. She would 

 then travel over her branch to get as near as 

 possible to the musician, and would remain motion- 

 less, even to the nervous antennae, and apparently 



