224 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



should happen to meet during their wanderings 

 abroad, a battle to the death usually ensues, and 

 the victor of the fray celebrates his victory by 

 making a meal of his victim. Even their matri- 

 monial affairs are not conducive to a lasting affection 

 between the two sexes, for although during the 

 courting period they behave in the most approved 

 fashion, yet when once they are married all feelings 

 of sentiment gradually cease until one day the 

 remains of the poor husband, who has the misfortune 

 to be considerably smaller than his better half, 

 may be found reposing within the home which, 

 but a short time previously, had sheltered the bride 

 and bridegroom. 



Further examples of stinging creatures are to 

 be found amongst the bees, wasps, and ants, and 

 many of us are, doubtless, famihar with the pain 

 produced by the venom which the former are able 

 to inject into our skin through the agency of their 

 piercing organs or ovipositors. Mr. Ainsworth 

 Davis, in his book The Natural History of Animals, 

 gives a very interesting description of the construc- 

 tion of a bee's sting, as follows : — ' The hard part 

 . . . consists of three rods, of which one acts as 

 a " director," along which the other two can be 

 moved backwards and forwards, each of them 

 presenting a longitudinal groove which works 

 along a corresponding ridge. Each of these two 

 " piercers " is a kind of flattened stylet, the tip 

 of which is studded with a number of minute 

 barbs. There are two poison glands secreting 

 respectively an acid and an alkaline secretion, 



