THE STAG-BEETLE 229 



out for those nippers. For all its threatening as- 

 pect, it is at bottom a peaceful creature. Catch it 

 by one leg and it will fly round and round like the 

 June-bug. It is called the stag-beetle, a name that 

 explains itself, for it has branching 

 mandibles resembling a stag's horns, 

 and it belongs to the family of beetles. 

 Put the two words together and you 

 have 'stag-beetle.' 



"The singular creature has not 

 always been as we see it to-day. In 

 its youth, not later than last year, it 

 had neither its present mandibles nor 

 its six legs nor its chestnut-colored Sto *- beeHe 

 coat-of-mail. In fact, its form had nothing in 

 common with what we now behold. Then it was a 

 big, fat worm, with fine white skin, crawling on legs 

 so small and feeble as hardly to deserve mention. 



"The whole animal consisted of little more than 

 a crawling stomach unprovided with any protection. 

 The head alone was fortified with a substantial skull 

 of horn, and it also bore, one on the right side of 

 the mouth, the other on the left, two short but strong 

 teeth 'adapted to cutting in pieces the wood of the 

 oak, its sole nourishment. 



"Such a worm, entirely naked, evidently cannot 

 live in the open air, where the thousand little rough- 

 nesses of the ground would be continually wounding 

 its delicate skin. It must have a safe shelter that 

 it need not leave until it has become the well-armored 

 inseet we now see. The grub of the stag-beetle does 



