A NOCTURNAL HUNTRESS 191 
“ Imagine what must be the feelings of the 
little chaps when they first hatch in their grassy 
clump. There is no father nor mother to guide 
them. Hunger demands that they must have 
food; but where is food to be found? I once 
passed one of these grassy nurseries and saw a 
score or more of anxious little heads peering out. 
I felt sure they must soon venture forth, and sat 
me down to watch. Pressed and harried by the 
clamoring brothers and sisters behind them, 
those in front were crowded out, and stood for an 
instant peering timid and half-frightened. What 
a big, big place was the world to which they had 
come! How was a tiny longhorn to know where 
to get a bite of dinner? Cautiously one of them 
nibbled at a bit of the short tender grass under 
its feet. Evidently it tasted good, for the next 
bite was taken greedily. Soon the whole house¬ 
hold were busily engaged. Their mother, accord¬ 
ing to Nature’s unvarying law, had carefully 
placed them in the very midst of the food their 
stomachs required for the first meal. I watched 
them scattering and feeding happily, each one 
daintily nibbling out little holes no larger than a 
pin-head here and there in the grass blades. A 
whole host of baby longhorns might feed in the 
meadow, I reflected, and the casual passer-by be 
none the wiser. I could not help a shrug over the 
thoughts of the havoc which a hungry beetle or 
