THE BLACK-TAILED HARE 231 



feeling of malicious joy, if he were in a condi- 

 tion to know anything at all about it. The 

 larvae are set free in the stomach of the coyote 

 by digestion of the vesicle that surrounds them, 

 and a certain proportion succeed in attaching 

 themselves by their hooks and suckers to the 

 walls of the small intestine; fortunately only a 

 very small proportion. Their way is beset with 

 dangers, and their extraordinary fecundity is 

 calculated in proportion to their chances of 

 safety. The tapeworm is a colony of hermaph- 

 rodites, each joint of which is a sexually com- 

 plete animal, male and female, containing 

 thousands of eggs. It reaches maturity in about 

 six weeks, after which period the lower joints, 

 and numerous free eggs, are discharged at each 

 evacuation and deposited upon the ground, 

 weeds, or grass. 



"The eggs are so small as to be quite invisi- 

 ble to the unaided eye, and being furnished 

 with a thick envelope have considerable tenac- 

 ity of life. The hare swallows the eggs, either 

 by feeding upon the grass and weeds or by 

 drinking from pools of water into which they 

 have been washed. In the stomach the thick 



