THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 161 



Is it possible to carry further the intimate knowledge 

 of one's being and the divine art of modifying the nature 

 of it ? 



Maternal instinct also enables the insect to accomplish 

 works which I was about to call herculean; bu^t I must go 

 further and call them more than herculean. In these it 

 develops a prodigious perseverance and an incomprehen- 

 sible power. 



LinniTeus saw one of the flies which attack large cattle, 

 an (Estrus, follow a reindeer a whole day, though drag- 

 ging its sledge at a gallop over the snow. The ominous 

 fly fleAV almost continually by its side, watching for the 

 moment Avheu it might introduce one of its eggs beneath 

 the skin ! 



These creatures, so contemptible as to their size, astonish 

 us by then- ingenious tenderness : their maternal foresight 

 is rmbounded. Some of them imitate the rabbit, which 

 denudes all its belly to form a soft pillow for its nest of 

 young. They go even further than the mammal; it only 

 deprives itself of a part of its wool, whilst some butterflies, 

 to protect their offspring, tear all the hair off" their bodies, 

 and expire so soon as this act of devotion is accomj^lished. 

 One of the pests of our fir forests, the Bomhyx clispar, acts 

 in this way. Its nest is composed of a double shelter — 

 a fine down on which the eggs lie, and which covers them 

 closely, and of an external layer formed of dense hairs laid 

 on like the slates of a roof, and forming an impermeable 

 cloth. Thus the young brood are doubly protected: against 

 the severity of winter's cold, and against its destructive 

 rains. 



Some kinds of gall-insects, still more devoted to their oflT- 

 spring, immolate themselves in order to protect them. As 

 the enormously distended insect gradually expels its eggs, 



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