FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



acquires consistency; the skin hardens, assumes a 

 chestnut hue, takes on the firmness of horn ; in fact, 

 when the warm season returns again the insect wakes 

 up from that deep sleep, not of death, but neverthe- 

 less very much like it. The creature moves, tears 

 apart the swathing bands under which its rebirth 

 has taken place, strips off these wrappings, and here 

 at last we have the insect in its full perfection. Be- 

 hold the stag-beetle ! 



"It comes out from its native oak, spreads its 

 wings in flight under cover of the foliage, and set- 

 tles down, now on this tree, now on that, in the rays 

 of the sun. The freedom of the open air and the 

 enjoyment of the light of day constitute its supreme 

 felicity for which it has been preparing during the 

 three or four years of constant toil in the dark gal- 

 leries of an old oak. 



"Thenceforth it grows no larger. Just as it was 

 on emerging from its cell, so it will remain to the 

 end, without the least increase either in weight or 

 in bulk. Thus it leads a very staid existence. In 

 its grub state the famished creature gnawed wood 

 night and day; its life was a perpetual digestion. 

 Now, on the contrary, all that it needs in the way 

 of sustenance is an occasional sip of the sweetened 

 sap oozing from the 'bark of the tree. 



"But its days of idle delight are numbered; it has 

 scarcely a couple of months to spend joyously among 

 the oak trees. Then it lays its eggs, one by one, 

 in the crevices of tree-trunks, to propagate its kind ; 

 and, that done, it very soon dies. It has played its 



