A STRANGE STORY OF A GRASSHOPPER I97 



and illustrate a singular battle which I had short- 

 ly before observed between a large red mutilla 

 ant and a "Quaker." The mutilla I had captured 

 at the time, and had preserved as a specimen. I 

 needed only the grasshopper to complete my 

 drawing. Directly in front of my city house a 



number of vacant grassy lots offered a favorite 

 haunt for the insects — I used to call it the 

 Quaker camp-meeting ground — and I started out 

 to procure one. Having no net, I was soon con- 

 vinced that I was greatly at a disadvantage. The 

 thermometer was about 90°, and, of course, the 

 " Quakers," being in their element, had much the 

 best, not to say the easiest, time of it. I at length 

 gave up the chase, and was about leaving the 

 field, when fortune favored me by the discovery of 

 a clumsy specimen, which seemed unable to fly 



