The Life of the Spider 



bull's snout, that seems carved out of a block 

 of crystal? Would you behold the Flesh-fly, 

 the common Blue-bottle, daughter of the mag- 

 got, as she issues from the earth? Listen to 

 our author: 



'She disjoints her head into two movable 

 halves, which, each distended with its great 

 red eye, by turns separate and reunite. In 

 the intervening space a large glassy hernia 

 rises and disappears, disappears and rises. 

 When the two halves move asunder, with one 

 eye forced back to the right and the other to 

 the left, it is as though the insect were split- 

 ting its brain-pan in order to expel the con- 

 tents. Then the hernia rises, blunt at the end 

 and swollen into a great knob. Next, the 

 forehead closes and the hernia retreats, leav- 

 ing visible only a kind of shapeless muzzle. 

 In short, a frontal pouch, with deep pulsations 

 momentarily renewed, becomes the instru- 

 ment of deliverance, the pestle wherewith the 

 newly-hatched Dipteron bruises the sand and 

 causes it to crumble. Gradually, the legs push 

 the rubbish back and the insect advances so 

 much towards the surface.' 



