The nest of the Praying Mantis is found more or less everywhere in sunny places, on stones, wood, vine-stocks, twigs, dry grass and even on products of human industry, such as bits of brick, strips of coarse linen or the hard, shrivelled leather of an old boot. Any support serves, without distinction, so long as there is an uneven surface to which the bottom of the nest can be fixed, thus securing a solid foundation. The usual dimensions are four centimetres in length and two in width. [33] The colour is as golden as a grain of wheat. When set alight, the material burns readily and exhales a faint smell of singed silk. The substance is in fact akin to silk; only, instead of being drawn into thread, it has curdled into a frothy mass. When the nest is fixed to a branch, the base goes round the nearest twigs, envelops them and assumes a shape which varies in accordance with the support encountered; when it is fixed to a flat surface, the under side, which is always moulded on the support, is itself flat. The nest thereupon takes the form of a semi-ellipsoid, more or less blunt at one end, tapering at the other and often ending in a short, curved tail. Whatever the support, the upper surface of the nest is systematically convex. We can distinguish in it three well-marked longitudinal zones. The middle one, which is narrower than the others, is composed of little plates or scales arranged in pairs and overlapping like the tiles of a roof. The edges of these plates are free, leaving two parallel rows of slits or fissures through which the young emerge at hatching-time. In a recently-abandoned nest, this middle zone is furry with gossamer skins, discarded by the larvæ. These cast skins flutter at the least breath and soon vanish when exposed to rough weather. I will call it the exit-zone, because it is only along this median belt that the liberation of the young takes place, thanks to the outlets contrived beforehand. In every other part the cradle of the numerous family presents an impenetrable wall. The two side zones, in fact, which occupy the greater part of the semi-ellipsoid, have perfect continuity of surface. The little Mantes, so feeble at the start, could never make their way out through so tough a substance. All that we see on it is a number of fine, transversal furrows, marking the various layers of which the mass of eggs consists. Cut the nest across. It will now be perceived that the eggs, taken together, form an elongated kernel, very hard and firm and coated on the sides with a thick, porous rind, like solidified foam. Above are curved plates, set very closely and almost independent of one another; their edges end in the exit-zone, where they form a double row of small, imbricated scales.