TWO STEANGE GRASSHOPPERS 91 



them nine months before, neither wrinkled not tarnished, 

 but on the contrary wearing a most healthy look. Yet in 

 June young Dectici are often to be met in the fields, and some- 

 times even those of larger growth. What was the reason 

 of this delay, I wondered. 



Then an idea came to me. The eggs of the Grasshopper 

 are planted like seeds in the earth, where they are exposed, 

 without any protection, to snow and rain. Those in my 

 jar had spent two-thirds of the year in a state of comparative 

 dryness. Since they were sown like seeds, perhaps they 

 needed, to make them hatch, the moisture that seeds require 

 to make them sprout. I resolved to try. 



I placed at the bottom of some glass tubes a pinch of 

 backward eggs taken from my collection, and on the top I 

 heaped lightly a layer of fine, damp sand. I closed the tubes 

 with plugs of wet cotton, to keep the air in them constantly 

 moist. Any one seeing my preparations would have supposed 

 me to be a botanist experimenting with seeds. 



My hopes were fulfilled. In the warmth and moisture the 

 eggs soon showed signs of hatching. They began to swell, 

 and the bursting of the shell was evidently close at hand. I 

 spent a fortnight in keeping a tedious watch at every hour of 

 the day, for I had to surprise the young Decticus actually 

 leaving the egg, in order to solve a question that had long been 

 in my mind. 



The question was this. The Grasshopper is buried, as a 

 rule, about an inch below the surface of the soil. Now the new- 

 born Decticus, hopping awkwardly in the grass at the approach 

 of summer, has, like the full-grown insect, a pair of very long 

 tentacles, as slender as hairs ; while he carries behind him two 

 extraordinary legs, two enormous hinged jumping-poles that 

 would be very inconvenient for ordinary walking. I wished to 

 find out how the feeble little creature set to work, with this 

 cumbrous luggage, to make its way to the surface of the earth. 

 By what means could it clear a passage through the rough soil ? 

 With its feathery antennae, which an atom of sand can break, 



