THE AJTT-LION. : 171 



the moveabls soil -vphidh rolls away under its feet, and by the 

 projectiles which are launched at it without intermission, 

 ends by falling to the bottom of the tunnel, between the 

 expanded horns of its enemy ; the two horns close and pierce 

 it, whilst seizing it, through and through; and then the 

 hunter becomes motionless : its two horns are trunks through 

 which it sucks its prey. In a short time nothing remains of 

 the ant but the skin and the head. The ant-lion does not eat 

 the heads of its prey, — the head is not to its taste ; it places 

 the relics upon the catapulta which serves him for a head, 

 and throws them out of the hole. Then it covers itself up in 

 the sand again, and resumes the position it was in before the 

 arrival of the ant. 



The place is well chosen ! Here comes a wood-louse, which 

 the heat of the sun incommodes, and which abandons the 

 wall to find elsewhere some cool and moist crack in which it 

 may conceal itself. There it is upon the very edge of the 

 trap ; it slips, — the ant-lion plays off its artillery; the wood- 

 louse gets up again. In vain the hunter redoubles its blows ; 

 the wood-louse escapes. 



A gnat, in its turn, corttrives to fall into the snare ; but it 

 expands its wings and escapes, in spite of the shower of sand 

 which its enemy launches at it. The wood-louse, in escaping, 

 made great chasms in the tunnel ; and this, no doubt, together 

 with the ill-success of the last two hunts, determines the ant- 

 lion to go and lay his ambushes elsewhere, He reasoends his 

 pit, and goes away, always travelling backwards, to seek 

 a spot more favourable to his views. 



But stop, yop. stupid creature! — take heed! It has no 

 longer time : it has fallen heavily into the hole, at the bottom 

 of which another hunter — another ant-lion — is in ambuscade. 

 The latter seizes it, still stupified with its fall, fixes it between 

 its two horns, sucks it, and makes an excellent repast of it. 



Is it excess of hunger, or anger at seeing another hunter 

 thus fall into its ambush and spoil it, that urges it to this act 

 of ferocity ? or do ant-lions see nothing in their own species 

 but a variety of game and a tempting food ? 



The ant-lion is not condemned to keep thus upon the earth 

 always; some evening in June, after having enjoyed a good 

 dinner, it will bury itself deeper in the sand than usual, with- 



