The Sloe-Weevil 
shape, but very curious with its narrow ven- 
tilating-shaft? Above all, how does she 
manage to make this communicating passage 
in the soft mass? These are details which 
we can scarcely hope to detect, so discreetly 
does the insect work. We must be content 
to know that the rostrum alone, without the 
aid of the legs, digs the crater and erects 
the central cone. 
In the heat of June, less than a week is 
enough for the hatching. By good fortune, 
solicited, so far as that goes, by attempts 
that come near to exhausting my small stock 
of patience, I witness an interesting sight. 
I have a new-born grub before my eyes. It 
has just cast the skin of the egg; it is very 
busily wriggling in its powdery cup. Why so 
much excitement? For this reason: to reach 
the kernel, its ration, the tiny creature has 
to finish the pit and turn it into an entrance- 
window. 
A stupendous task for a speck of albumen. 
But this feeble speck boasts a set of 
carpenter’s tools; its mandibles, a pair of 
fine chisels, received the necessary temper 
while their owner was still in the egg. The 
grub sets to work immediately. By the 
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