Bright and Shining Ones. 119 
to secure his food without exposing himself to any serious 
risk. With his short, thick spiny legs he loosens the earth, 
and with his flat head, which he uses as a shovel, and turning 
himself into a z-shaped figure, hoists up the clay and upsets 
it around the mouth of his intended dwelling. With head 
and legs, and with a perseverance that is truly surprising, he 
sinks in a very short time a shaft a foot in length and as 
large in diameter as an ordinary lead-pencil. 
Especial pains are taken to see that the tunnel is suffi- 
ciently wide, so that the little creature can crawl in with ease. 
If he wishes to remain set fast, he sticks the back of his 
body against the sides and rests safely with the aid of his 
hooks. In this position he can poke his head out of the 
ground, thus closing the entrance of his burrow, while in 
patient waiting for some unsuspicious wayfarer to pass over. 
As soon, however, as the luckless insect touches the top of 
his head, he relinquishes his hold within the tunnel and 
descends with great precipitation to the bottom, and thus his 
victim falls into the hole, where it is seized by the powerful 
jaws and its juices absorbed in a quiet, leisurely manner. 
The loose earth around the opening of the tunnel gives way 
on the approach of an insect, and thus the success of the 
cunning Cicindela is doubly insured. 
Sometimes in the construction of a burrow, after a certain 
depth has been reached, the young Cicindela meets with a 
difficulty which he had not expected. A flat stone is encoun- 
tered, and thus further progress in a vertical direction is 
prevented. If the obstacle, on account of its size, cannot be 
gone round, and the shaft is not deep enough for his purpose, 
it is not unusual for him to desert it and attempt the tunnel- 
ling of a home in some more desirable spot. He does not 
undertake a very long journey, for he knows too well the 
risk which he runs by so doing, as he is in danger of being 
assaulted by secret foes in the rear, an attack which the 
peculiar conformation of his hinder body ill fits him to resist. 
On land he is timid and cowardly, and well might he be, but 
