Page:Wild nature won by kindness (IA wildnaturewonbyk00brigiala).pdf/158



HAD often read of the earwig as an incubating insect, and much wished to see for myself how she carried out her motherly instincts. One bright May morning found me busily turning over stones, clinkers, and old tree-roots in a fernery, which, having been long undisturbed, seemed a likely spot for the nest I wished to find. There seemed no scarcity of worms, wood-lice, centipedes, or beetles, but no earwigs could I see; and I was just about to give up the search when, lifting a piece of stone. I saw a small cavity, about as large as would contain a pea, and in it lay about