The Nut-Weevil 
dificulty in boring a moderate porthole? 
Could she not, by making a ring of perfor- 
ations, remove a round disk of the requisite 
size? Strictly speaking, this would be pos- 
sible, with a prodigious expenditure of 
patience, a quality which insects can hardly 
be said to lack. 
‘But here length of time is not enough: the 
boring-tool is absolutely unmanageable inside 
the nut-shell. It is so long that, to implant 
it at the point to be drilled, the Weevil, when 
she works outside, is obliged to stand erect. 
For lack of space under the low ceiling of 
the shell, this position and the alternate 
tacking about become impossible. 
However patient she herself may be and 
however well-armed we suppose the tip of 
her drill to be, the Weevil, prevented from 
employing her augur by the narrowness of 
the premises, would perish in her coffer. 
She would die a victim to her inordinate 
machinery, which serves excellently well for 
pushing the egg into place, but which would 
be very unwieldy if the prisoner had to 
effect her own delivery. 
Given a less exaggerated rostrum, just a 
short and powerful punch, the Weevil, me- 
135 
