POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS 109 



and ends in a splendid curved spine or sting. The 

 scorpion carries its tail raised in a graceful curve over its 

 back, and strikes with the sting by a powerful forward 

 stroke. One can seize the tail by the last joint but one, 

 and thus safely hold the animal, and see the poison 

 exude in drops from the perforated sting. I found that 

 if I pressed the sting thus held into the scorpion's own 

 body, or into that of another scorpion, no harm resulted 



FIG. 15. Drawing from life of the desert scorpion (Buthus australis, Lin.), 

 from Biskra, N. Africa, of the natural size. (From Lankester, Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. Zool.,vol. xvi. 1881.) 



to the wounded animal, although plenty of the poison 

 entered the little wound made by the sting. A large 

 cockroach or a mouse similarly wounded by the sting 

 was paralysed, and died in a few minutes. It is a custom 

 in countries where scorpions abound, and are trouble- 

 some, and even dangerous to human life, for the natives 

 to make a circle of red-hot charcoal, and to place a large 

 scorpion in the centre of the enclosed area. The 

 scorpion, it is stated, runs round inside the circle, and, 

 finding that escape is impossible, deliberately drives its 

 sting into its back, and so commits suicide. My experi- 



