THE CAPRICORN 149 



tried enclosing some in reed-stumps, but even this compara- 

 tively easy work was too much for them. Some freed them- 

 selves, but others failed. 



Notwithstanding his stalwart appearance the Capricorn 

 cannot leave the tree-trunk by his own unaided efforts. The 

 truth is that his way is prepared for him by the grub that 

 bit of intestine. 



Some presentiment to us an unfathomable mystery 

 causes the Capri corn- grub to leave its peaceful stronghold in 

 the very heart of the oak and wriggle towards the outside, 

 where its foe the Woodpecker is quite likely to gobble it up. 

 At the risk of its life it stubbornly digs and gnaws to the very 

 bark. It leaves only the thinnest film, the slenderest screen, 

 between itself and the world at large. Sometimes, even, the 

 rash one opens the doorway wide. 



This is the Capricorn's way out. The insect has but to 

 file the screen a little with his mandibles, to bump against it 

 with his forehead, in order to bring it down. He will even 

 have nothing at all to do when the doorway is open, as often 

 happens. The unskilled carpenter, burdened with his extra- 

 vagant head-dress, will come out from the darkness through 

 this opening when the summer heat arrives. 



As soon as the grub has attended to the important busi- 

 ness of making a doorway into the world, it begins to busy 

 itself with its transformation into a Beetle. First, it requires 

 space for the purpose. So it retreats some distance down its 

 gallery, and in the side of the passage digs itself a transforma- 

 tion-chamber more sumptuously furnished and barricaded than 

 any I have ever seen. It is a roomy hollow with curved walls, 

 three to four inches in length and wider than it is high. The 

 width of the cell gives the insect a certain degree of freedom 

 of movement when the time comes for forcing the barricade, 

 which is more than a close-fitting case would do. 



The barricade a door which the larva builds as a pro- 

 tection from danger is twofold, and often threefold. Out- 

 side, it is a stack of woody refuse, of particles of chopped 



