THE ANT-LION. 245 



Its industry and patience. 



nished, it crawls backward up the side of the 

 place where the stone is; and, getting its tail 

 under it, takes great pains and time to get it on 

 a true poise, and then begins to crawl backward 

 with it up the edge to the top of the pit to get 

 it out of the way. It is a very common thing 

 to see the ant-lion labouring in this manner at a 

 stone four times as big as its own body ; and as 

 it can only move backward, and the poise is diffi- 

 cult to keep, especially up a slope of such crum- 

 bling matter as sand, which moulders away from 

 under its feet, and necessarily alters the position 

 f its body, the stone very frequently rolls down, 

 when near the verge, quite to the bottom. In 

 this case the animal attacks it again in the same 

 way, and is not often discouraged by five or six 

 miscarriages; but continues its struggles so long 

 that it at length gets it over the verge of the 

 place. When it has done this, it does not leave 

 it there, lest it should roll in again ; but is always 

 at the pains of pushing it farther on, till it has 

 removed it to a necessary distance from the edge 

 of the pit. 



When this insect has lived its usual time in 

 the larva state, it leaves its pit, and buries itself 

 under the surface of the sand. Here it incloses 

 itself in a fine web, in which it is to pass its 

 transformation into a winged state. This web is 

 made of a sort of silk, which the creature spins 

 in the manner of the spider, and of a quantity of 

 the grains of sand cemented together by a glu- 



