The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1861-12-25
Insee, Arpe,,tc.

yeat t9,E3Jinp .nu tiEa1
The man who wished he had "a throat a
mile long. and palate all the way, might
envy tn. feats perfarmcdi in the world ofin-
significance. Some insects are endowed
with an appetite 50 keen, and digestion 9"
rapid, that they eat ince ssan,ly throughout
tho whole Of their lives They begin as soon
as they are born, and go steanily on till they
die Their existen nee il feast, without
change Of plates, or = pause, between the
course Morninr, noon and night their
mouths are full, an endless procession OF
fapor;tc food gratifcs tiie unweared palate.
Thsv know not thena Of meals. Break
fast commences with infancy, and their on
w after. dinner nap is a passage q another
state of existence. This is generally the
case with grubs. where the eggs from which
tley are produced are laid in the food or
which they live. Thus they lose no time
when they come into the world. Every
thing is prepared for hem. Their work is
to cat. They have no other calling, amuse-
ment or pursuit. Talk of pigl In nat
ursl state he has to think and bestir himself
! to get victuais. His intellect is exercised in
searching for the whereabouts Of acarns,
snails. and what not Besides, society ex-
poets him occasionally. to lie in the sun and
grunt Many hours Of his youth are spent
in spasmodic gambnls with his little broth.
ers and sisters Unless shut up, and SIP
piled hv man. he never grows fat A COW.
certainly, contrives to fill up good deal Of
her time in gratifying the sense Of taste
What with bona # 'e eating, and then ma
terial review Of that process, with her eyes
shut, she makes the most Of mnnthful. n
But for steady. consistent application,
commend me toa grub. While in that state
the quantity Of food consumed by insects Is
vastly greater In proportion to their bulk.
than that required by larcer animals. Some
caterpillars eat their weight Of leaves daily
which ia as if q man Of twelve stone were
10 get through something over two hundred
legs Of mutton in the course Of week
There are larvae, who distance the caterpil
lars. The maggots Of flesh fies have ben
known actually to treble their weight in half
an hour. As might possibly be expected
these animals in the noxt stage Of their ex-
istence, which is a, sublim, ,ted as before it
was gross, eat very little. The greedy cat.
erpill.r, when become butterfly, dips the
+, tip Of its tongue in honey, and the maggot
ITSELF when transformed into fly, is con-
tent with an occasional whet of his probo-
scis But there are many insects in a state
higher than that ofvqlgar larve who distin-
guish themselves at table. The ant lion will
devour daily an animal of its own sizr.--
Fancy the Fusileer Guards eating up the
London Scottish" at meal. But though
these Heliogabali are so greedy. their pow
ers Of abstinence are equal to their appetite.
Instances are in that charming book, EN-
tomology," by kirkhy and Spence. ofa spi-
der being made { fast, without injury, for
ten months. and ofa beetle kept alive for
three years without food. Another writer, q
foreigner. tells us Of mi,e. which he gum
med alive to the point Of a needle. and p'a
ced before his microscope, and adds that it
/ took eleven weeks to die.
The quality Of animal food is also as re-
markable as the quantity they consume =
There is hardly anything which some one
or other Of this extensive family Of living
creatures will not eat. Man. indeed. is al
most omnivorons I; by artificial means he is
enabled to prepare food from a vast VARIETY
Of animal and vegetable matter; but the 9th.
er large animals are generally confined t"
the leaves. fruit and seeds Of plants. Not
80 insects. Some live upon the Leaf, some
eat their way into the heart Of the SOLD word
others prefer the pith, while . few win tonch
nothing hut bark The bee selects honey. hut
there are little creatures who get their living
head over ears In vinegar.
1t is questioned whether the power Of ca
TIM dirt" he not prerogative Of man; but
some insects have tastes more gross even
than snch diet suggests. There is race
Of them. m, ch perseon.ed hut very useful.
7 mean cockro,ches. who are kitchen scav.
eneers Thew come out Of their holes when
the ftowsv cook has grne to bed, and cleav
up every little scrap Of grease and fat she
has dropped on the floor around the CRATE
When shut out Of the places where fo'd is
kert, they do positive good, though it mus,
be confessed thev are rather rnnpreposscssins
scullerv maids, and their fear oflight makes
one naturally suspect their motives.
/ But about these beetles, the following an
ecdote rests upon the authority ofa reverend
doctor. who gave it IN perfect faith: A
friend Of his. after beetle hunt, brought
home twelve one considerably larger than the
Others. Having. as he believed, killed, he
pinned them to the bottom of a tray in his
cabinet, turned the key, and presently vert
tn he'd. Next morning, on looking at his
specimens, he was surprised to find clever
Of The pins standing empty. 1t turned ou
that the big beetle. recovering himself, ant
feeling very hungry, had struggled up, and
though still tran>fixed, had cono round ant
eaten his fellow captives clean of their pins
There he wss. sitting in the corner, lookin,
very guilty. and tight about the waist.
4 A shoemaker wae taken np for big
amy. (which wife," asked by
stander. sswill he he obliged to take?'