246 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Non 



The Dastard's Nemesis. 



The pike is reputed to be afraid of the perch, its strong 

 prickly spines deterring him from attacking so well armed a 

 prey. And in proof of this assertion it is said that if an 

 angler has been unsuccessfully attempting to catch a pike, he 

 can mostly succeed by taking a rather small perch, cutting off 

 its prickly fins and using it as bait. The pike, seeing that the 

 perch is defenceless, will not lose so excellent an opportunity : 

 he accordingly darts at the bait and is straightway hooked. 

 Here is a parallel to a transaction constantly seen in commer- 

 cial circles. A dastard, when he sees it defenceless, will often 

 attack a creature of which, at any other time, he has been 

 afraid. But this truculence sometimes leads him to his own 

 ruin. For Nemesis angles for him with the victim which he 

 desires, and then captures him in the moment when he is about 

 to gratify himself by appropriating it. Intriguers, wreckers, 

 adventurers, and money-lenders, beware ! The waters of human 

 life have snares even for your rapacity. r. 



Nervousness Initiates Bad Policy. 



The great enemy of the earth-worm is the mole. The 

 peewit bird knows this, and in order to make the worms fancy 

 a mole is near, it taps the ground with one leg. No sooner 

 do the worms perceive a vibration or shaking motion in the 

 earth than they make the best of their way to the surface, 

 and thus constantly fall into greater and more certain peril, as 

 the peewit feeds on those he catches. How many nervous 

 persons, through yielding to unnecessary terrors, in like manner 

 frighten themselves away from situations of comparative safety 

 into the very presence of needless dangers ! HI. 



Nonchalance Assumed as a Stratagem. 



The dark and sombre little bee termed Mellinus arvensis is 

 rather a slow flier, whereas the flies which it chooses for its prey 

 are all swift of wing, so that it cannot take them by open 

 assault, but is obliged to trust to craft. In order, therefore, to 

 obtain its victims, the Mellinus watches some spot. where flies 

 most love to congregate, and walks to and fro as if it were 



