LIVING ARTILLERY. 
O more remarkable creature exists, perhaps, than the 
little Brachinus fumans, which is so very common in 
the early spring. Damp situations are affected by it, but it 
is seldom met with except by insect-hunters, for it conceals 
itself generally under stones, as many as a half-dozen indi- 
viduals often being found in company in a single locality. 
Banks of tidal rivers afford excellent hunting-grounds in 
England for Brachinus, but in America low, dank woods and 
borders of streams are the places where one must look to 
discover its presence. 
When once you have made the acquaintance of so remark- 
able a stranger you can never afterwards fail to recognize him 
in your travels. He is peculiar, but not at all distinguished 
in looks, as some of his brethren. Picture a yellowish-red 
beetle, with a bluish frock-coat, which his wing-covers resem- 
ble, and possessed of a short, narrow head, a heart-shaped 
prothorax, as the front of the chest-segments is called, anda 
long, broad abdomen, three times the size of the rest of his 
body, and you have a tolerably fair idea of Brachinus. 
But it is not so much his odd shape as a most extraordi- 
nary property he possesses, which is singularly unique in the 
animal kingdom, that makes him an object of interest and 
curiosity. Deep down in his most marvellous body a fluid, 
highly volatile in its nature, is elaborated, which the little 
creature can retain or expel at his pleasure. It is only, how- 
ever, when alarmed that he utilizes this fluid in small quan- 
tities in defense, but its effect is wonderful, for in coming into 
contact with the atmosphere it immediately volatilizes and 
