266 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



hooks; but it must first be seized, and there is the 

 difficulty. The nimble ant scampers off at the first 

 approach of danger, and if it should chance to be 

 hard pressed it has only to run up a blade of grass 

 and there be out of reach. The ant-lion, on its part, 

 heavy of paunch and short of leg, drags itself along 

 very awkwardly; and, moreover, if it ever under- 

 takes to get over the ground — a rare occurrence — it 

 always moves backward, which is not what might be 

 called a speedy gait and does not adapt itself to keep- 

 ing the object of one 's pursuit always in sight. 



"The chase being thus rendered impracticable, 

 there remain the snare and the ambuscade. The 

 creature must capture by cunning what its sluggish- 

 ness of movement makes it impossible to get posses- 

 sion of otherwise. Let us see what form this cun- 

 ning takes. 



' ' Hunt at the base of sun-exposed walls and rocks, 

 and if you find there some little nook with very fine 

 and dry sandy soil, the ant-lion will seldom fail to 

 be there too. Its abode is easily recognized by the 

 regular funnel-shaped hollow scooped in the ground. 

 The insect itself is invisible, being hidden under the 

 sand at the bottom of the excavation. 



"With the blade of a knife thrust obliquely into 

 the ground lift up the bottom of the funnel, and you 

 will have the little creature, rather abashed at first 

 by the sudden destruction of its retreat, but soon 

 recovered and striving to hide itself in the soil by 

 a backward movement. Make haste to take it and 

 put it into a glass under a layer of fine sand like that 



