COCKCHAFFER, OR MELOLONTHA. 103 
along each side. The head of this 
creature is remarkably large and strong, 
in proportion to its size, and is furnished 
with pincers and a sharp semicircular 
lip, with which it cuts and devours 
the roots of plants. As it lives under 
ground it seems to have no use for eyes, 
and accordingly we do not find that it is 
provided with any*. 
Lucy, How then can the poor thing 
know where it is going ? 
Mother, By means of two feelers, 
with which it gropes its way. Possibly 
they contain also the organs of smell ; so 
that these feelers may not only guide its 
subterraneous course, but serve likewise 
to discover the food best suited to its 
habits. 
In the autumn of the fourth year^ the 
grub, burying itself still deeper in the 
ground^ sometimes even to six feet be- 
neath the surface^ excavates a sort of 
* Plate V. 
