His short, flat head, armed with powerful mandibles, heavy-set chest, and large, soft, fleshy abdomen, amply protected on the sides with stiff, bristly hairs, added to his compact, robust form, the forward projection of his front and middle legs, and the backward prolongation of the stronger and less movable hind ones, which eminently adapts them to a backward manner of walking, are characters which so deeply impress, that we cannot fail to call up, when occasion demands, the possessor of so wonderful a mechanism. [Illustration: YOU-EE-UP IN HIS DEN. As He Appears in Youth and Old Age.] Now that you have become familiar with the odd creature in form and in mien, set him once more upon his proud realm of sand, and seat yourself on the bank close by to watch and enjoy his curious behavior. In a minute or two his fears will have subsided, and he in control again of his accustomed indifference. See, he moves. Round and round he turns in the loose grey sand, burying himself deeper and deeper, and throwing the grains out from the hole he has made by his twistings, using his short, flat head for a shovel. The sand, as it is thrown over the side of the burrow, forms quite a margin, and when all is completed the Ant-lion sinks himself deep into the bottom of the trap he has digged, leaving only the tips of his mandibles in sight, which are extended and ready to seize any insect that is so luckless as to fall into their reach. The unfortunate ant that ventures too close to the margin sets the sand off rolling, and it immediately begins to struggle against falling down, but the Ant-lion throws a few shovelfuls of sand against it, and it soon comes tumbling down to the bottom of the funnel, when it is instantly seized between the sharp mandibles in waiting, which, being perforated by slender tubes, enable their blood-thirsty owner to suck out its juices. Country children, and adults as well, manifest a deep interest in these strange beings. They call them, as has been intimated before, You-ee-ups. How the name originated, and when, I do not pretend to know, nor have I been able upon inquiry to find out from the oldest inhabitants of the regions they affect. Old men and old women in the seventies and eighties knew these insects by this name when they were children, and I have been informed that they were always so spoken of by _their_ fathers and mothers.