20 THE INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. 



repast to vanish. The reptile plunges, the birds 

 continue without suspicion to come and go. Suddenly 

 there emerges before them the huge open jaw armed 

 with formidable teeth. In the moment of stupor and 

 immobility which this unforeseen apparition produces 

 a few imprudent birds have disappeared within the 

 reptile's mouth, while the others fly away. In the 

 same sly and brutal manner he snaps up dogs, horses, 

 oxen, and even men who come to the river to drink. 



One of the most dangerous ambushes which can be 

 met on the road by animals who resort to a spring is 

 that prepared by the Python. This gigantic snake 

 hangs by his tail to the branch of a tree and lets 

 himself droop down like a long creeper. The victim 

 who comes within his reach is seized, enrolled, 

 pounded in the knots which the snake forms around 

 him. It is not necessary to multiply examples of 

 this simple and widespread method of hunting. 



Not content with utilising the natural arrangements 

 they meet with, there are animals which construct 

 genuine ambushes, acting thus like Man, who builds 

 in the middle or on the edge of ponds, cabins in which 

 to await wild ducks, or who digs in the path of a lion 

 a hole covered with trunks of trees, at the bottom of 

 which he may kill the beast without danger. Certain 

 insects practise this method of hunting. The Fox, for- 

 instance, so skilful a hunter in many respects, con- 

 structs an ambush when hunting hares.^ 



The larva of the Tiger Beetle {Cicindela campestris) 

 constructs a hole about the size of a feather quill, 

 disposed vertically, and of a depth, enormous for its 

 size, of forty centimetres. It maintains itself in this 

 tube by arching its supple body along the walls at a 



' C. St. John, Wild Sporls, etc., chap. xx. 



