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Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . COMING HOME FROM HUNTING. here COMING HOME FROM HUNTING. Lady Chiltern was probably right when she declared that her husband must have been made to be a Master of Hounds,—presuming it to be granted that somebody must be Master of Hounds. Such necessity certainly does exist in this, the present condition of England. Hunting prevails; hunting men increase in numbers; foxes are preserved; farmers do not rebel; owners of coverts, even when they are not hunting men themselves, acknowledge the fact, and do not dare to maintain their pheasants at the expense of the much better-loved four-footed animal. Hounds are bred, and horses are trained specially to the work. A master of fox hounds is a necessity of the period. Allowing so much, we cannot but allow also that Lord Chiltern must have been made to fill the situation. He understood hunting, and, perhaps, there was nothing else requiring acute intelligence that he did understand. And he understood hunting, not only as a huntsman understands it,—in that branch of the science which refers simply to the judicious pursuit of the fox, being probably inferior to his own huntsman in that respect,—but he knew exactly what men should do, and what they should not. In regard to all those various interests with which he was brought in contact, he knew when to hold fast to his own claims, and when to make no claims at all. He was afraid of no one, but he was possessed of a sense of justice which induced him to acknowledge the rights of those around him. When he found that the earths were not stopped in Trumpeton Wood,—from which he judged that the keeper would complain that the hounds would not or could not kill any of the cubs found there,—he wrote in very round terms to the Duke who owned it. If His Grace did not want to have the wood drawn, let him say so. If he did, let him have the earths stopped. But when that great question came up as to the Gartlow coverts—when that uncommonly disagreeable gentleman, Mr. Smith, of Gartlow, gave notice that the hounds should not be admitted into his place at all,—Lord Chiltern soon put the whole matter straight by taking part with the disagreeable gentleman. The disagreeable gentleman had been ill used. Men had ridden among his young laurels. If gentlemen who did hunt,—so said Lord Chiltern to his own supporters,—did not know how to conduct themselves in a matter of hunting, how was it to be expected that a gentleman who did not hunt should do so? On this occasion Lord Chiltern rated his own hunt so roundly that Mr. Smith and he were quite in a bond together, and the Gartlow coverts were re-opened. Now all the world knows that the Gartlow coverts, though small, are material as being in the very centre of the Brake country. It is essential that a Master of Hounds should be somewhat feared by the men who ride with him. There should be much awe mixed with the love felt for him. He should be a man with whom other men will not care to argue; an irrational, cut and thrust, unscrupulous, but yet distinctly honest man; one who can be tyrannical, but will tyrannise only over the evil spirits; a man capable of intense cruelty to those alongside of him, but who will know whether his victim does in truth deserve scalping before he draws his knife. He should be savage and yet good-humoured; severe and yet forbearing; truculent and pleasant in the same moment. He should exercise unflinching authority, but should do so with the consciousness that he can support it only by his own popularity. His speech should be short, incisive, always to the point, but never founded on argument. His rules are based on no reason, and will never bear discussion. He must be the most candid of men, also the most close;—and yet never a hypocrite. He must condescend to no explanation, and yet must impress men with an assurance that his decisions will certainly be right. He must rule all as though no man's special welfare were of any account, and yet must administer all so as to offend none. Friends he must have, but not favourites. He must be self-sacrificing, diligent, eager, and watchful. He must be strong in health, strong in heart, strong in purpose, and strong in purse. He must be economical and yet lavish; generous as the wind and yet obdurate as the frost. He should be assured that of all human pursuits hunting is the best, and that of all living things a fox is the most valuable. He must so train his heart as to feel for the fox a mingled tenderness and cruelty which is inexplicable to ordinary men and women. His desire to preserve the brute and then to kill him should be equally intense and passionate. And he should do it all in accordance with a code of unwritten laws, which cannot be learnt without profound study. It may not perhaps be truly asserted that Lord Chiltern answered this description in every detail; but he combined so many of the qualities required that his wife showed her discernment when she declared that he seemed to have been made to be a Master of Hounds. Early in that November he was riding home with Miss Palliser by his side, while the huntsmen and whips were trotting on with the hounds before him. "You call that a good run, don't you?" "No; I don't." "What was the matter with it? I declare it seems to me that something is always wrong. Men like hunting better than anything else, and yet I never find any man contented." "In the first place we didn't kill." "You know you're short of foxes at Gartlow," said Miss Palliser, who, as is the manner with all hunting ladies, liked to show that she understood the affairs of the hunt. "If I knew there were but one fox in a county, and I got upon that one fox, I would like to kill that one fox,—barring a vixen in March." "I thought it very nice. It was fast enough for anybody." "You might go as fast with a drag, if that's all. I'll tell you something else. We should have killed him if Maule hadn't once ridden over the hounds when we came out of the little wood. I spoke very sharply to him." "I heard you, Lord Chiltern." "And I suppose you thought I was a brute." "Who? I? No, I didn't;—not particularly, you know. Men do say such things to each other!" "He doesn't mind it, I fancy." "I suppose a man does not like to be told that directly he shows himself in a run the sport is all over and the hounds ought to be taken home." "Did I say that? I don't remember now what I said, but I know he made me angry. Come, let us trot on. They can take the hounds home without us." "Good night, Cox," said Miss Palliser, as they passed by the pack. "Poor Mr. Maule! I did pity him, and I do think he does care for it, though he is so impassive. He would be with us now, only he is chewing the cud of his unhappiness in solitude half a mile behind us." "That is hard upon you." "Hard upon me, Lord Chiltern! It is hard upon him, and, perhaps, upon you. Why should it be hard upon me?" "Hard upon him, I should have said. Though why it shouldn't be the other way I don't know. He's a friend of yours." "Certainly." "And an especial friend, I suppose. As a matter of course Violet talks to me about you both." "No doubt she does. When once a woman is married she should be regarded as having thrown off her allegiance to her own sex. She is sure to be treacherous at any rate in one direction. Not that Lady Chiltern can tell anything of me that might not be told to all the world as far as I am concerned." "There is nothing in it, then?" "Nothing at all." "Honour bright?" "Oh,—honour as bright as it ever is in such matters as these." "I am sorry for that,—very sorry." "Why so, Lord Chiltern?" "Because if you were engaged to him I thought that perhaps you might have induced him to ride a little less forward." "Lord Chiltern," said Miss Palliser, seriously; "I will never again speak to you a word on any subject except hunting." At this moment Gerard Maule came up behind them, with a cigar in his mouth, apparently quite unconscious of any of that displeasure as to which Miss Palliser had supposed that he was chewing the cud in solitude. "That was a goodish thing, Chiltern," he said. "Very good." "And the hounds hunted him well to the end." "Very well." "It's odd how the scent will die away at a moment. You see they couldn't carry on a field after we got out of the copse." "Not a field." "Considering all things I am glad we didn't kill him." "Uncommon glad," said Lord Chiltern. Then they trotted on in silence a little way, and Maule again dropped behind. "I'm blessed if he knows that I spoke to him, roughly," said Chiltern. "He's deaf, I think, when he chooses to be." "You're not sorry, Lord Chiltern." "Not in the least. Nothing will ever do any good. As for offending him, you might as well swear at a tree, and think to offend it. There's comfort in that, anyway. I wonder whether he'd talk to you if I went away?" "I hope that you won't try the experiment." "I don't believe he would, or I'd go at once. I wonder whether you really do care for him?" "Not in the least." "Or he for you." "Quite indifferent, I should say; but I can't answer for him, Lord Chiltern, quite as positively as I can for myself. You know, as things go, people have to play at caring for each other." "That's what we call flirting." "Just the reverse. Flirting I take to be the excitement of love, without its reality, and without its ordinary result in marriage. This playing at caring has none of the excitement, but it often leads to the result, and sometimes ends in downright affection." "If Maule perseveres then you'll take him, and by-and-bye you'll come to like him." "In twenty years it might come to that, if we were always to live in the same house; but as he leaves Harrington to-morrow, and we may probably not meet each other for the next four years, I think the chance is small." Then Maule trotted up again, and after riding in silence with the other two for half an hour, he pulled out his case and lit a fresh cigar from the end of the old one, which he threw away. "Have a baccy, Chiltern?" he said. "No, thank you, I never smoke going home; my mind is too full. I've all that family behind to think of, and I'm generally out of sorts with the miseries of the day. I must say another word to Cox, or I should have to go to the kennels on my way home." And so he dropped behind. Gerard Maule smoked half his cigar before he spoke a word, and Miss Palliser was quite resolved that she would not open her mouth till he had spoken. "I suppose he likes it?" he said at last. "Who likes what, Mr. Maule?" "Chiltern likes blowing fellows up." "It's a part of his business." "That's the way I look at it. But I should think it must be disagreeable. He takes such a deal of trouble about it. I heard him going on to-day to some one as though his whole soul depended on it." "He is very energetic." "Just so. I'm quite sure it's a mistake. What does a man ever get by it? Folks around you soon discount it till it goes for nothing." "I don't think energy goes for nothing, Mr. Maule." "A bull in a china shop is not a useful animal, nor is he ornamental, but there can be no doubt of his energy. The hare was full of energy, but he didn't win the race. The man who stands still is the man who keeps his ground." "You don't stand still when you're out hunting." "No;—I ride about, and Chiltern swears at me. Every man is a fool sometimes." "And your wisdom, perfect at all other times, breaks down in the hunting-field?" "I don't in the least mind your chaffing. I know what you think of me just as well as though you told me." "What do I think of you?" "That I'm a poor creature, generally half asleep, shallow-pated, slow-blooded, ignorant, useless, and unambitious." "Certainly unambitious, Mr. Maule." "And that word carries all the others. What's the good of ambition? There's the man they were talking about last night,—that Irishman." "Mr. Finn?" "Yes; Phineas Finn. He is an ambitious fellow. He'll have to starve, according to what Chiltern was saying. I've sense enough to know I can't do any good." "You are sensible, I admit." "Very well, Miss Palliser. You can say just what you like, of course. You have that privilege." "I did not mean to say anything severe. I do admit that you are master of a certain philosophy, for which much may be said. But you are not to expect that I shall express an approval which I do not feel." "But I want you to approve it." "Ah!—there, I fear, I cannot oblige you." "I want you to approve it, though no one else may." "Though all else should do so, I cannot." "Then take the task of curing the sick one, and of strengthening the weak one, into your own hands. If you will teach, perhaps I may learn." "I have no mission for teaching, Mr. Maule." "You once said that,—that—" "Do not be so ungenerous as to throw in my teeth what I once said,—if I ever said a word that I would not now repeat." "I do not think that I am ungenerous, Miss Palliser." "I am sure you are not." "Nor am I self-confident. I am obliged to seek comfort from such scraps of encouragement as may have fallen in my way here and there. I once did think that you intended to love me." "Does love go by intentions?" "I think so,—frequently with men, and much more so with girls." "It will never go so with me. I shall never intend to love any one. If I ever love any man it will be because I am made to do so, despite my intentions." "As a fortress is taken?" "Well,—if you like to put it so. Only I claim this advantage,—that I can always get rid of my enemy when he bores me." "Am I boring you now?" "I didn't say so. Here is Lord Chiltern again, and I know by the rattle of his horse's feet that something is the matter." Lord Chiltern came up full of wrath. One of the men's horses was thoroughly broken down, and, as the Master said, wasn't worth the saddle he carried. He didn't care a —— for the horse, but the man hadn't told him. "At this rate there won't be anything to carry anybody by Christmas." "You'll have to buy some more," said Gerard Maule. "Buy some more!" said Lord Chiltern, turning round, and looking at the man. "He talks of buying horses as he would sugar plums!" Then they trotted in at the gate, and in two minutes were at the hall door. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Anthony Trollope (2006). Phineas Redux. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18640/pg18640-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

COMING HOME FROM HUNTING.

Working in cybersecurity can be a very fulfilling career, but most jobs require some amount of experience or formal training. While there are many great courses and certifications for learning pen-testing out there, it might be the case that they are simply above your budget. But that is totally fine. I think it is still possible to get job-ready knowledge about and pen-testing from free resources. cybersecurity A little warning: While I feel like it is possible to spend no money on your way to the first pen-testing job, it is the case that some paid resources provide knowledge in a condensed and easy-to-digest form. Having access to those resources might accelerate your learning journey. So I will provide some recommendations on which of them are worth it and which are not. I also created a GitHub repo with free cybersecurity resources. Check it out, and feel free to add some: https://github.com/her0marodeur/awesome-free-cybersecurity A few words about my own career I got really lucky in terms of getting a job. My first contact with cybersecurity was back in my teenage years when I Googled “ .” That was back when there were no such resources as HackTheBox and TryHackme. So, a lot of the learning was more theoretical and, in general, kinda slow. How to become a hacker After I finished school, it was time to look for a job. I started out with a student job for a big software company. There, I had the opportunity to work with different security teams. During this time, I did my eJPT certification and got in contact with the internal pen-testing team. They provided me with the opportunity to do an internship and paid for my OSCP. After I finished my Bachelor’s degree, I got offered a full-time job as a pentester. As I mentioned, I got lucky, but I think there are a couple of takeaways from my own story: The demand for pen-testers is currently very high, so many companies are willing to train existing employees. So if you are already working for a company, see if they have an internal pen-testing or security team. The most important characteristics of a pentester (hacker) are willingness to learn and curiosity. Getting them does not cost a penny. One of the mistakes I made was focusing too much on the theory and not getting enough hands-on experience. This is really important, and you should try to get as much practice as possible. The role of certifications and degrees I know you probably want to get into learning right away, but I think we should have a brief discussion about this topic. There is a decade-long ongoing discussion about the difference between and which is better and a lot more. I don’t want to dive into all that stuff. certifications and degrees Generally speaking, a degree or a certification is a verifiable and easy way for employers to assess the skills of an applicant. The OSCP or a computer science degree does show that the candidate has skills and knowledge in a certain area. If you have to filter through hundreds of applications, they give a good orientation. But there are two big things to take into consideration: There are other ways of getting experience and knowledge. I have friends who have maintained Minecraft servers since they were twelve years old, and they have extremely good programming skills, even without having a degree. And their salaries are comparable to some seniors in the industry. Even tho there has been a huge interest in pen-testing in the last couple of years, the demand has skyrocketed as well. That means employers are not getting hundreds of applications. Many times, it is actually the case that pen-testers are getting many job offers just because they have a LinkedIn profile. Paid Certifications to avoid: For some reason, this is still seen as a good certification, but from everything I have heard, they provide a really dry course, and the exam requires you to memorize a lot of stuff. So you can save your money. Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH): I did this one myself, and it was fun; the exam was really hands-on and enjoyable. The reason I don’t recommend it is that I don’t think it is really beneficial in terms of getting a job because I don’t feel like employers are valuing it. eLearning Security Junior Penetration Tester (eJPT): Paid Certifications you can do (if you have the money): I don’t hold this certification myself, but I did Heath Adams courses back in the day. The content is just great and really well explained. It covers a lot of topics. The exam is more relaxed than the OSCP, and it has industry recognition at the lowest price. Practical Network Penetration Tester (PNPT): The OSCP has its pros and cons, and I wouldn’t recommend that you take a loan to do it or bust your bank account. But in a situation where you can really afford to do it (considering money AND time), I have to admit it has a great course, and it is basically a job guarantee. If you want to learn more about it, check out my blog here: Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP): https://infosecwriteups.com/methodology-and-mindset-for-passing-the-oscp-d609592a7dcb Getting the knowledge To know where you should start, you have to know where you stand. It is a big difference if you already have fundamental IT knowledge or if you are coming from a different profession because it is absolutely necessary to understand basic computer science concepts like networking and how programs, web pages, and computers are built and running. Since I suspect that many readers of this article will have this knowledge, I will not talk too much about learning all that stuff. has some really cool courses to learn the basics, and I think installing your own web server and learning the basics of Python really helps a lot. There are also basic computer science courses on sites like . TryHackMe Coursera TryHackMe and HackTheBox As well as for basic knowledge, I think you should really start with for learning the basics of pen-testing; they have some really good paths for this. Sadly, some of them might be only accessible via a paid membership. I think the paid membership is really one of the best investments you can make because it is quite cheap and provides access to a lot of knowledge. TryHackMe If you are thinking about what kind of pen-testing (mobile, web, network, Red Teaming, etc…) to learn first, I suggest you go with web pen-testing because there are many resources about it, and when we talk about Bug Bounty later, most of the targets are available in this area. But if you feel like doing something else, do it; all of this is just my opinion. Additionally, to do the learning path, you should also do some of their boxes that don’t give you any hints about how to solve them. Also, check out for this; they also have some great boxes, but beware of their rating system. I recommend you really start with easy boxes. HackTheBox When solving boxes, I recommend you give yourself a time limit. I recommend something like this: If you don’t have the initial foothold after 30 minutes, you should check a writeup. Afterward, you try 30 mins for privilege escalation, and if you don’t get it, check the writeup again. It might be true that there is no writeup in a real pentest, but doing boxes is about getting as much knowledge as possible. Also, start pushing yourself as soon as possible and increase the difficulty. It may mean that you might need a write-up for almost every step, but it also means you learn something new with every box. Free certifications: This one is a must-have. It is just the right mix between great course content and realistic and challenging exercises. APISec University: This one is not really about pen-testing but covers a lot of the basics of cybersecurity. But these topics are important for pen-testers as well because they always have to see the bigger picture of cybersecurity. The course and exam are free, but it requires an annual maintenance fee. ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC): : Another one that is not directly about pen-testing. It explains one of the essential policies of cybersecurity, and employers would like knowledge about this one. Skillfront ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Associate™ If you love certifications as I do and want some more for free, please check out my GitHub Repo over here: https://github.com/her0marodeur/awesome-free-cybersecurity Getting the experience By now, you already hacked some machines and websites, but all of them were in a simulated environment and left vulnerable by design. While this provides valuable experience and gives you the ability to learn how to exploit vulnerabilities, it is not necessarily the experience employers are looking for. Therefore, I recommend you try your skills against some real-world targets (in a legal way). Luckily, Bug Bounty platforms allow you to do this and maybe earn some money. Bug Bounty Platforms You can check out the following platforms: https://www.bugcrowd.com/ https://www.hackerone.com/ https://www.intigriti.com/ https://yeswehack.com/ Look at their programs and get familiar with the general topic of Bug Bounty (try to avoid the Twitter and Medium hustler bubble; there is some really bad stuff out there). I suggest you start by looking at Katie Paxton-Fear’s stuff ( ). She has some great videos that are really for beginners. But don’t stress too much about all of it; sign up for a platform, pick a program, and hunt. This is what life as a pentester is going to be like. Also, be careful and don’t bother too much about all of the tools, oneliners, and scanners. Learn about the recon fundamentals ( ) and start hunting. https://insiderphd.dev/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krCsMZfbuB4 If you get one or the other bug, it is great for your CV because it shows you know how to apply your pen-testing knowledge to real-world targets. Synack Red Team https://www.synack.com/red-team/ This one really depends on how much time you want to spend before getting a job as a pentester. I am not part of it, but I heard really good stuff about it. It basically is a closed Bug Bounty platform, but they additionally offer some fixed pay jobs like checking default credentials or OWASP Top 10. However, you have to apply to them, and this process can take a while. But it gives you the chance to have some experience with a real-world job application. It offers great hands-on experience and looks good on your CV. So check it out and see if it is for you. Getting the job If you are following this blog (btw. please read more resources than just this one; there is a lot of great career advice out there), I hope you don’t think of it as something that has to be done in chronological order. You can skip things and do them in parallel, or however it feels right for you. Writing a CV Before you go out and look for a job, you should write a CV. This really should focus on showcasing skills that you can apply to your pen-testing job. So if you have worked in another job, think about how you can translate the skills you gained to pen-testing. If you are a programmer, tell them you have a deep understanding of technology and for sure you had to implement security measures in your code, and probably you know how developers think and fail. If you have worked as an executive assistant, you have probably done a lot of writing and have clear communication skills, which is also really beneficial for pen-testing. By now, you have done at least some certifications and courses, but be careful what you include in your CV. I think, if you have done the three free certs I mentioned, you should include all of them, as they really showcase skills and knowledge needed for your job. But you want to be careful not to include every little thing. Rather than including the certificate of completion for every TryHackMe track you did, you should just include your TryHackMe profile. And for bug bounty profiles, you only want to mention the sites where you have at least one accepted submission. If you put too much basic stuff in there, it probably seems desperate. For writing the actual CV, you should not get too creative. It is best to either download a Word template and fill it in with your experience and skills or use one of the online generators (consider privacy implications). Be aware that your CV is often times read by machines, so make it “machine-readable.” Getting yourself out there Being visible can be really helpful if you want to get a job. I think having a is crucial. So create one, put a nice photo and some experience on it, and maybe include “aspiring pentester” in your bio to make yourself visible when recruiters search for possible candidates in this area. well-maintained LinkedIn profile You can also do a little bit more to increase visibility. A nice thing to do is to start a blog. Like this one, you are just reading. Even tho you might not have a lot of expert knowledge; you can talk about your journey and experiences or write a tutorial for a tool or a writeup for a box you did. But please don’t go down 1337 Hacker Road. I don’t think that blogs like “Hack a webcam with only three steps,” “Hacking Instagram password,” and other clickbait help find employment. Other things you can do are contribute to GitHub projects (for example, Nuclei and Spiderfoot allow you to contribute new rules and templates), create your own tools, or speak at a conference. All of these things will increase your network and look great on a CV. Applying for jobs Go for quality over quantity. The job has to be a match for you as much as you have to be a match for the job. So, really try to find jobs that match your expectations. While I say that, it is also true that it is probably easier to pivot from one pen-testing job to another than getting into the industry, but I feel bad advising anyone to take a job they don’t enjoy. I highly recommend you reach out to recruiters/headhunters. You can easily find them on LinkedIn, add them to your network, and ask if they have a role that fits your profile. It will not cost you a penny because the employers are paying them. They will also be a big help with streamlining a lot of the process. They know their clients and where you have a good chance of getting hired and, most of the time, allow you to skip steps like writing a cover letter. Even if they are not able to offer you something right away, they will add you to their contact list and reach out in the future. Interviews There are just better resources than I am, so I will link to them: The Cyber Mentor- Mock Job Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDpjaS6OYPU The Cyber Mentor — What to Expect in an Ethical Hacking Job Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrewE1mLlaU Security Interview Questions: https://github.com/justinltodd/security-interview-questions Conclusion While it should be entirely possible to get a pen-testing job without spending a dollar, it will still require a lot of work. Spending at least some money can make the process if you spend it right. I also have to mention that all of this is just my personal experience and perspective. Your mileage may vary. If you liked this blog post, you can follow me on Twitter @Secbyaccident or read my other stuff over at . https://security-by-accident.com/ And if you have read this far, I want to offer you a little Thank You. My DMs on Twitter are open, and you can reach out to me if you want me to review your CV, help you with some studying, or set you up with some recruiters. I will do all of this for free, but expect a little delay in response time. Also published here.

Cybersecurity Job Hunting, Pen-Testing Study Plans, and Certifications on a Budget

The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Hunting the deceitful Turkey here Hunting the deceitful Turkey When I was a boy my uncle and his big boys hunted with the rifle, the youngest boy Fred and I with a shotgun—a small single-barrelled shotgun which was properly suited to our size and strength; it was not much heavier than a broom. We carried it turn about, half an hour at a time. I was not able to hit anything with it, but I liked to try. Fred and I hunted feathered small game, the others hunted deer, squirrels, wild turkeys, and such things. My uncle and the big boys were good shots. They killed hawks and wild geese and such like on the wing; and they didn't wound or kill squirrels, they stunned them. When the dogs treed a squirrel, the squirrel would scamper aloft and run out on a limb and flatten himself along it, hoping to make himself invisible in that way—and not quite succeeding. You could see his wee little ears sticking up. You couldn't see his nose, but you knew where it was. Then the hunter, despising a “rest” for his rifle, stood up and took offhand aim at the limb and sent a bullet into it immediately under the squirrel's nose, and down tumbled the animal, unwounded, but unconscious; the dogs gave him a shake and he was dead. Sometimes when the distance was great and the wind not accurately allowed for, the bullet would hit the squirrel's head; the dogs could do as they pleased with that one—the hunter's pride was hurt, and he wouldn't allow it to go into the gamebag. In the first faint gray of the dawn the stately wild turkeys would be stalking around in great flocks, and ready to be sociable and answer invitations to come and converse with other excursionists of their kind. The hunter concealed himself and imitated the turkey-call by sucking the air through the leg-bone of a turkey which had previously answered a call like that and lived only just long enough to regret it. There is nothing that furnishes a perfect turkey-call except that bone. Another of Nature's treacheries, you see. She is full of them; half the time she doesn't know which she likes best—to betray her child or protect it. In the case of the turkey she is badly mixed: she gives it a bone to be used in getting it into trouble, and she also furnishes it with a trick for getting itself out of the trouble again. When a mamma-turkey answers an invitation and finds she has made a mistake in accepting it, she does as the mamma-partridge does—remembers a previous engagement—and goes limping and scrambling away, pretending to be very lame; and at the same time she is saying to her not-visible children, “Lie low, keep still, don't expose yourselves; I shall be back as soon as I have beguiled this shabby swindler out of the country.” When a person is ignorant and confiding, this immoral device can have tiresome results. I followed an ostensibly lame turkey over a considerable part of the United States one morning, because I believed in her and could not think she would deceive a mere boy, and one who was trusting her and considering her honest. I had the single-barrelled shotgun, but my idea was to catch her alive. I often got within rushing distance of her, and then made my rush; but always, just as I made my final plunge and put my hand down where her back had been, it wasn't there; it was only two or three inches from there and I brushed the tail-feathers as I landed on my stomach—a very close call, but still not quite close enough; that is, not close enough for success, but just close enough to convince me that I could do it next time. She always waited for me, a little piece away, and let on to be resting and greatly fatigued; which was a lie, but I believed it, for I still thought her honest long after I ought to have begun to doubt her, suspecting that this was no way for a high-minded bird to be acting. I followed, and followed, and followed, making my periodical rushes, and getting up and brushing the dust off, and resuming the voyage with patient confidence; indeed, with a confidence which grew, for I could see by the change of climate and vegetation that we were getting up into the high latitudes, and as she always looked a little tireder and a little more discouraged after each rush, I judged that I was safe to win, in the end, the competition being purely a matter of staying power and the advantage lying with me from the start because she was lame. Along in the afternoon I began to feel fatigued myself. Neither of us had had any rest since we first started on the excursion, which was upwards of ten hours before, though latterly we had paused awhile after rushes, I letting on to be thinking about something else; but neither of us sincere, and both of us waiting for the other to call game but in no real hurry about it, for indeed those little evanescent snatches of rest were very grateful to the feelings of us both; it would naturally be so, skirmishing along like that ever since dawn and not a bite in the meantime; at least for me, though sometimes as she lay on her side fanning herself with a wing and praying for strength to get out of this difficulty a grasshopper happened along whose time had come, and that was well for her, and fortunate, but I had nothing—nothing the whole day. More than once, after I was very tired, I gave up taking her alive, and was going to shoot her, but I never did it, although it was my right, for I did not believe I could hit her; and besides, she always stopped and posed, when I raised the gun, and this made me suspicious that she knew about me and my marksmanship, and so I did not care to expose myself to remarks. I did not get her, at all. When she got tired of the game at last, she rose from almost under my hand and flew aloft with the rush and whir of a shell and lit on the highest limb of a great tree and sat down and crossed her legs and smiled down at me, and seemed gratified to see me so astonished. I was ashamed, and also lost; and it was while wandering the woods hunting for myself that I found a deserted log cabin and had one of the best meals there that in my life-days I have eaten. The weed-grown garden was full of ripe tomatoes, and I ate them ravenously, though I had never liked them before. Not more than two or three times since have I tasted anything that was so delicious as those tomatoes. I surfeited myself with them, and did not taste another one until I was in middle life. I can eat them now, but I do not like the look of them. I suppose we have all experienced a surfeit at one time or another. Once, in stress of circumstances, I ate part of a barrel of sardines, there being nothing else at hand, but since then I have always been able to get along without sardines. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2008). The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3186/pg3186-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Hunting the deceitful Turkey

The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits by Lewis Carroll, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . The Hunting here Fit the fourth - The Hunting The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow. “If only you’d spoken before! It’s excessively awkward to mention it now, With the Snark, so to speak, at the door! “We should all of us grieve, as you well may believe, If you never were met with again— But surely, my man, when the voyage began, You might have suggested it then? “It’s excessively awkward to mention it now— As I think I’ve already remarked.” And the man they called “Hi!” replied, with a sigh, “I informed you the day we embarked. “You may charge me with murder—or want of sense— (We are all of us weak at times): But the slightest approach to a false pretence Was never among my crimes! “I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch— I said it in German and Greek: But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much) That English is what you speak!” “’Tis a pitiful tale,” said the Bellman, whose face Had grown longer at every word: “But, now that you’ve stated the whole of your case, More debate would be simply absurd. “The rest of my speech” (he explained to his men) “You shall hear when I’ve leisure to speak it. But the Snark is at hand, let me tell you again! ’Tis your glorious duty to seek it! “To seek it with thimbles, to seek it with care; To pursue it with forks and hope; To threaten its life with a railway-share; To charm it with smiles and soap! “For the Snark’s a peculiar creature, that won’t Be caught in a commonplace way. Do all that you know, and try all that you don’t: Not a chance must be wasted to-day! “For England expects—I forbear to proceed: ’Tis a maxim tremendous, but trite: And you’d best be unpacking the things that you need To rig yourselves out for the fight.” Then the Banker endorsed a blank cheque (which he crossed), And changed his loose silver for notes. The Baker with care combed his whiskers and hair, And shook the dust out of his coats. The Boots and the Broker were sharpening a spade— Each working the grindstone in turn: But the Beaver went on making lace, and displayed No interest in the concern: Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride, And vainly proceeded to cite A number of cases, in which making laces Had been proved an infringement of right. The maker of Bonnets ferociously planned A novel arrangement of bows: While the Billiard-marker with quivering hand Was chalking the tip of his nose. But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine, With yellow kid gloves and a ruff— Said he felt it exactly like going to dine, Which the Bellman declared was all “stuff.” “Introduce me, now there’s a good fellow,” he said, “If we happen to meet it together!” And the Bellman, sagaciously nodding his head, Said “That must depend on the weather.” The Beaver went simply galumphing about, At seeing the Butcher so shy: And even the Baker, though stupid and stout, Made an effort to wink with one eye. “Be a man!” said the Bellman in wrath, as he heard The Butcher beginning to sob. “Should we meet with a Jubjub, that desperate bird, We shall need all our strength for the job!” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Lewis Carroll (2008). The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13.html.images This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE HUNTING

The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits by Lewis Carroll is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon! : The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits Title : Lewis Carroll Author : June 25, 2008 [eBook #13] Most recently updated: October 24, 2021 Release date : English Language TABLE OF LINKS PREFACE Fit the First - THE LANDING Fit the Second - THE BELLMAN’S SPEECH Fit the Third - THE BAKER’S TALE Fit the fourth - THE HUNTING Fit the Fifth - THE BEAVER’S LESSON Fit the Sixth - THE BARRISTER’S DREAM Fit the Seventh - THE BANKER’S FATE Fit the Eighth - THE VANISHING About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Lewis Carroll (2008). The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13.html.images This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits by Lewis Carroll - Table of Links

Let's learn about via these 72 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Job Hunting /Learn Repo 1. A Guide to Becoming More Confident in Job Interviews (and in Life) One of the most common pieces of advice given to jobseekers is to “be more confident.” But what does that really mean? And how can you do it? The truth is, conf 2. "True Pain is the Inability to Breathe" - Muhammad Bilal, CEO of BreatheIO I find that work and personal life are just categoricals, that only come to play with respect to space, not even time. 3. 8+ Portfolio and Resume Templates to To Showcase Your Skills 💼✨ A professional-looking portfolio and a well-written resume are both essential to succeed in the job-seeking phase. 4. How to Ace Your Interview Assignment to Land Your Next Front-end Job Let’s have a quick look at how to make your next front-end interview assignment look as good as possible. 5. Add the "Linkedin Helped Me Get the Job" Badge to Your Profile LinkedIn, the world's best professional platform launched a small badge beside the text “helped me get the job” under the job position. 6. 13 Ways to Wrap and Shine Your Experience to Rock Your Next Job Interview 13 tips on preparation for a product manager job interview that will help you present your experience in the best possible way. 7. 3 Skills You Need to be a Great Software Engineer Besides Coding When asked about their talent stack, most software developers reply with "writes code". To be a successful developer you need so much more than that. 8. 5 Things to Consider Before Interviewing at Fortinet Working at Fortinet is a unique experience.  Its one that can grow your career and pay you well, if you know what your getting into. 9. How to Choose the Best Resume Template to Land Your Dream Tech Job Struggling to decide to find a suitable resume template? Follow this easy guide to pick the best option and create a beautiful resume for your dream tech job. 10. How to Find Remote Jobs in 2021 - 16 Websites to Help You Work from Home Online Finding a remote job can be hard when you don’t know the best websites to go to. This list of remote job sites will help you find a work-from-home job easily. 11. About the 5 Types of People You'll Meet at Virtual Networking Events The evolution of virtual meetings continues to break new ground. 12. How to Improve Your Github Profile Having a nice resume is good, However, that doesn't cut it anymore. A good way to impress people including potential employees is to have a great Github profile 13. Top 10 Job Boards Where You Can Find Your Next Software Engineering Job I’ve compiled just a few of the best places for you to look for new job openings. 14. How the Job Market Is Being Misrepresented to You Here are some ways job seekers are misinformed about the job market. 15. Talent for Tech? Job Tips From 5 Top Women in Tech As the technology sector expands, there are exponential opportunities for people from all backgrounds and disciplines to carve out new careers for yourself. 16. 8 Tips for Writing a Winning Software Engineer Cover Letter You have looked around and located some software engineer jobs that interest you. While you may think you can just write a quick cover letter to go with your resume you may want to think again. A good cover letter takes time. You want your letter to stand out from the rest. Here are 8 tips for writing a winning software engineer cover letter. 17. A Developer’s Github Profile is Just as Important as their Resume Itself The more you can fill in with relevant information about yourself and your skills, the more you’ll stand out and be memorable to your potential employer. 18. 5 Successful Strategies for Finding a Job in Tech The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people search for jobs, but it is still possible to find a rewarding tech job. To make your job-hunt successful, utilize multiple strategies at the same time. Let’s take a look at the most effective ones. 19. The 6 Most Lucrative Blockchain Jobs of 2022 On average, a blockchain developer gets paid anywhere from $150,000 per year up to $175,000 depending on their experience 20. HackerNoon is Looking for Sales Superstars. Apply Now! Hello World! This is Sidra, Business Development Representative from HackerNoon's smart and lean Sales team. Today, I'm here with exciting news - WE ARE HIRING! 21. 3 Ways to Win the Negotiation for What You Want From Your Next Job If you are tech worker right now, you are in demand. If you are considering moving on to another position, you are going to want to prepare. Of course, you need to burnish your resume and reach out to your LinkedIn network for endorsements. Such things are a given, but if you really want to be a TOUGH negotiator, then certain things must be so. Get your ducks in a row. 22. When To Start Applying For Web Developer Jobs When I was in the process of learning web development, I was always thinking to myself: “Am I ready to start applying for jobs”, “How many things do I need to know before I start applying for jobs”, “When should I start applying for jobs”. These are probably one of the most important questions in your web development career and ones most people struggle with. 23. FAQs For a Software Engineering Hiring Manager - Part 3 of 5: Portfolios & GitHubs With over 10 years of experience as a hiring manager for software engineers, I've compiled a list of the many recurring questions I've received from job seekers 24. Why We're Pivoting After Making $109,000 in Revenue Last Year It’s Time for a Change 25. How I Got a Tech Job In Berlin This is for people currently working and residing outside of Europe, who are looking for jobs in Berlin/Europe. There are many opportunities here, as the startup scene in Berlin is on the rise. I've been working as a Software Developer for the last 5 years, out of which I spent a year and a half in Berlin. Like many developers out there, moving abroad for work is a personal dream, and most people materialize that dream by doing a Masters from abroad, and working from there. For me, the story was a little different. 26. That Time I Applied to 600 Jobs “I love job searching,” says no one ever. 27. 14 GitHub Repositories to Ace JavaScript Interviews 🎯 🚀 Finding a developer job in the current tech market can be a challenge, especially for beginners. 28. The Power of AI in Recruiting: How The Business World is Changing for Good AI drastically improved the world around us in many different ways. However, there are still many notable concerns with regard to overall impact on employment. 29. Side Hustle Stack: Platform-Based Work Opportunities Sharing something a little different today: I built a product!
It’s called Side Hustle Stack: a directory of platform-based work opportunities. Check it out! 30. 9 Things You Might Be Missing From Your Job Search Strategy A successful "Job Hunt" is a combination of Strategy, Marketing, and Sales tasks. 31. Job Mobility Slows Amidst Recession Fears and Tech Layoffs The Great Resignation might be waning among knowledge workers. Enter: The Great Disengagement. 32. 15 Secrets Every Job Seeker Needs to Know There are a lot of things that job seekers need to know in order to be successful in their search. However, there are some secrets that can be even more helpful 33. Eight Recruiting Trends for 2022 Telling you what IT employers should pay attention to in order to fill IT vacancies in one to two months. 34. Learn About How COVID-19 Impacted Nonprofits and Potential Employees The pandemic disrupted the nonprofit sector like never before 35. The Basics Of Getting A Job Getting hired needs applicants to complete some steps; writing resume/CV, cover letter, popular interview questions, general interview advice, choosing a job. 36. A Guide to Understanding the Job Roles & Selecting Your Career in Cybersecurity This article covers the top 20 job roles available in the Cyber Security domain along with the job description in a simplified way. 37. Software Testing as a Job to Enter the Tech Space Software testing is a tech job that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. 38. How to Work in Web 3, Cryptocurrency? This article will help readers sort out the types of jobs in this field and the mindsets and traits they should have if they want to apply for those positions. 39. FAQs For a Software Engineering Hiring Manager - Part 5 of 5: On Managers, Growth & Progression With over 10 years of experience as a hiring manager for software engineers, I've compiled a list of the many recurring questions I've received from job seekers 40. Got Laid Off? Here's How to Get Back on the Job Horse 41. Introducing: The Gun.io Telegram Bot The Gun.io Telegram bot streamlines the job searching process for software developers by integrating their job searching tools with their Telegram workflow. 42. Negotiating Salary and Benefits for Your Job Offers How to negotiate a higher salary at your tech job, without having to upset the stakeholders involved. 43. Hiring Process And Onboarding Virtually During COVID-19 The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a virtual standstill and has millions of us at home. COVID-19 also presents an unprecedented challenge for recruiters — interviewing new candidates, hiring and onboarding them. Keeping these challenges at bay, many companies have turned to virtual hiring as an alternative to traditional hiring. 44. Team Red: Long Lost Contact Linus Chen is a research scientist who was given an opportunity to interview for a Volga during a global pandemic, the largest e-commerce company. 45. Are Video Resumes a Good Idea for Fresh Graduates? Most recent college graduates struggle to land interviews, let alone job offers. Sadly, it is difficult to gain experience if no one is willing to give you a chance to work. The challenge lies in landing as many interviews as possible. 46. How to Prepare for a Product Manager Interview [Part 3-From Zero to Product Manager] This article is Part 3 of the ongoing series From Zero to Product Manager. A set of articles that help you transition to a Product Management role. In this post, I provide tips to look for jobs and prepare for your interview. 47. 22 Top Tech Companies Hiring Remote Workers in 2021 These are the 22 Top Tech Companies filling remote job positions in 2021. The list includes Citrix, Oracle, and more. 48. My Experience of Using Notion to Build this All-in-One Job Application Tracker I have attempted to build a Notion template which serves as a job application tracker and different aspects of a job search making the process more conducive. 49. How I Successfully Ended My One Week Job Hunt After spending months studying front end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and Git), and weeks building my portfolio, I landed a job in one week! 50. The Ultimate Guide to Software Development Job Interview Prep 51. Ultimate Guide to Software Development Job Interview Prep The Ultimate List of Job Hunting Resources for Software Developers covers resources for resuming writing, job application management, and coding interview prep. 52. 'Why Do You Want This Job?' How to Avoid the Interview Trap Compared to other brain teaser questions, the relatively common "why do you want this job?" is the best one take advantage of if handled correctly. 53. The Secrets of Success: How Young Men Can Make Their Fortune One Thousand Ways to Make Money, November 2017 by Page Fox is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. 54. FAQs For a Software Engineering Hiring Manager - Part 4 of 5: Applying & Job Hunting With over 10 years of experience as a hiring manager for software engineers, I've compiled a list of the many recurring questions I've received from job seekers 55. ADPList Matches Laid-Off Designers with Mentors for Free ADPLIst is a free community that matches designers and mentors. The new platform has more than 5,000 designers and mentors. 56. FAQs For a Software Engineering Hiring Manager - Part 1 of 5: Resumes With over 10 years of experience as a hiring manager for software engineers, I've compiled a list of the many recurring questions I've received from job seekers 57. Fast-Track Your Career Development with Data Science Help If you’re in the market for a new job in tech, you’ve undoubtedly seen the huge need for data scientists. Data science is one of the hottest fields right now with hundreds of new roles added every day. Even better, these roles are often highly paid, with the average median salary for a US-based data scientist topping $113,000 (Glassdoor). Data scientists also report a high degree of satisfaction with their jobs, which makes this career path a great choice for data-minded women in tech. 58. How to Write a Python Script to Scale Your Data Science Job Applications Are you struggling getting job interviews as a fresh graduate out of college? Here's my experience using an unconventional approach to get that interview. 59. The Final Guide on Landing a Software Engineering Role at a FAANG Company A roadmap that can be followed by any software engineer on their next job search and land a job at big tech. i.e. Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Amazon. 60. How The Great Recession Led Me To Innovate Now We all know startups are supposed to solve problems. And, 2020 has been a record-setting year for problems. 61. “Looking For My Next Challenge”: How Tech Executives Should Do It We try, we fail or we succeed but we always learn. 62. How to Get a Recruiter to Work Harder for You Here’s the secret to getting a recruiter to work harder for you. 63. 15 Best Places to Find a Remote Software Developer Job Remote work has become increasingly popular in recent years thanks to the shift towards flexible living, and software development is no exception. 64. Landing a Job at Tesla Using Facebook Ads Step by step guide how to stand out of the crowd landing a job with Facebook ads 65. How to Cold Email Career Prospects for Advice When You're Still a Student Every week, I receive a handful of LinkedIn requests from students of all ages/nationalities seeking to get into consulting. Cold-emailing is the right approach: getting to know a company from the inside will help during the interview process, and shows that the candidate cares enough about the role to do some due diligence. It's also important to gauge how potential future co-workers treat soon-to-be graduates. 66. AI in Human Resources: 5 Trends in 2020 and Beyond Many new and emerging technologies are adding value to human resources. This explains their high adoption rate. One of these technological marvels is artificial intelligence or AI. 67. How to Prepare Yourself (and your CV) for Remote Tech Opportunities Do you want to find remote work in tech? Find out the most essential tips, tools and resources to help you prepare yourself and your CV for tech roles. 68. So, Do You Have Any Questions For Us? OR: How to ask the right questions in order to find your dream company. 69. 5 Things To Ask About the Engineering Team to Avoid Taking a Job From Hell Anyone with enough job experience knows that some jobs can leave you completely exhausted at the end of the day — while others make you excited, proud, and willing to do more. Sometimes people experience these opposite effects from jobs that are in fact quite similar in terms of responsibilities. So what can account for this difference? 70. FAQs For a Software Engineering Hiring Manager - Part 2 of 5: Companies & Interviews With over 10 years of experience as a hiring manager for software engineers, I've compiled a list of the many recurring questions I've received from job seekers 71. Job Hunting for Newbies Looking for work can be challenging, especially if you don't know where to start. Thinking of you, we decided to share a few hacks to help you nail the job. 72. 15 Strategies to Navigate the Job Market in a Covid Economy You face a very tough job market now — but you can still thrive. Graduates nowadays face a very challenging labor market. Unfortunately, the corona class of 2020, as they are now called, are facing limited job prospects, reduced pay, and a higher risk of unemployment. Thank you for checking out the 72 most read stories about Job Hunting on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

72 Stories To Learn About Job Hunting

THE BUPRESTIS-HUNTING CERCERIS

The Hunting Wasps by Jean-Henri Fabre is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon! : The Hunting Wasps Title : Jean-Henri Fabre Author : Alexander Teixeira de Mattos Translator : January 5, 2022 [eBook #67110] Most recently updated: April 5, 2022 Release date : English Language Table of Links TRANSLATOR’S NOTE CHAPTER THE BUPRESTIS-HUNTING CERCERIS THE GREAT CERCERIS A SCIENTIFIC SLAUGHTERER THE YELLOW-WINGED SPHEX THE THREE DAGGER-THRUSTS THE LARVA AND THE NYMPH ADVANCED THEORIES THE LANGUEDOCIAN SPHEX THE WISDOM OF INSTINCT THE IGNORANCE OF INSTINCT AN ASCENT OF MONT VENTOUX THE TRAVELLERS THE AMMOPHILÆ THE BEMBEX THE FLY-HUNT A PARASITE OF THE BEMBEX. THE COCOON THE RETURN TO THE NEST THE HAIRY AMMOPHILA AN UNKNOWN SENSE THE MODERN THEORY OF INSTINCT About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jean-Henri Fabre (2022). The Hunting Wasps. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/67110/pg67110-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Hunting Wasps by Jean-Henri Fabre - Table of Links

Insect life: Souvenirs of a naturalist by Jean-Henri Fabre, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . HUNTING DIPTERA XVII. HUNTING DIPTERA After this bill of fare for Bembecids in the larva state, we must seek the motive which causes these Hymenoptera to adopt a mode of storage exceptional among Fossors. Why, instead of laying up sufficient food and dropping an egg on it, which would allow the cell to be closed at once without need of returning, does the Hymenopteron oblige itself to come and go perpetually for a fortnight from the fields to the burrow and back again, toiling every time through the sand to issue forth and hunt, or bring back prey? The explanation is that the food must be fresh—an all-important matter, for the grub absolutely refuses game which is at all high, with a hint of decay; like the larvæ of all Fossors, it must have fresh provisions—always fresh provisions. We have seen in the case of the Cerceris, Sphex, and Ammophila how the mother resolves the feeding problem, by placing beforehand in the cell a sufficient quantity of game, and also that of keeping it for weeks perfectly fresh—nay, almost alive, though motionless—in order to secure the safety of the grub which [ ]feeds on the prey. This marvel is brought about by the most skilful means known to physiology. The poisoned sting is sent into the nerve centres once or oftener, according to the construction of the nervous system, and the victim retains all which we call life, except power of motion. 234 Let us see if the Bembex practises this deep science of murder. Diptera taken from between the feet of their captor as the latter enters the burrow mostly seem quite dead. They are motionless; only in rare cases are there some slight convulsions of the tarsi—the last vestiges of life soon to be extinct. The same appearance of complete death is found, as a rule, in insects not really killed but paralysed by the skilful stab of a Cerceris or a Sphex. The question as to life or death can, therefore, only be decided by the manner in which the victims keep fresh. Placed in little paper twists or glass tubes, the Orthoptera of the Sphex, the caterpillars of the Ammophila, the Coleoptera of the Cerceris, preserve flexibility of limb and freshness of colour, and the normal state of their intestines, for weeks and months. They are not corpses, but bodies plunged in a lethargy from which there will be no awakening. The Diptera of the Bembex behave quite otherwise. Eristalis, Syrphus,—in short, all which are brightly coloured,—soon lose their brilliance; the eyes of certain gadflies, magnificently gilded, and with three purple bands, soon grow pale and dim, like the gaze of a dying man. All these Diptera, great and small, placed in paper twists where air circulates, dry up and grow brittle in two or three days, [ ]while all kept from evaporation in glass tubes, where the air is stagnant, grow mouldy and decay. So they are dead—really dead—when carried to the larva. If some few preserve a little life, a few days, a few hours ends all. Not being clever enough to use its sting, or for some other reason, the assassin kills its victims outright. 235 Knowing this complete death of the prey at the moment when it is seized, who would not admire the logic of the Bembecid’s manœuvres? How methodical all is, and how one thing brings about another in all which the wary Hymenopteron does! As the food could not be stored without its decaying at the end of two or three days, it cannot be laid in wholesale at the beginning of a phase of life destined to last at least a fortnight, and there must be a hunt and distribution of provisions day by day, in proportion to the larva’s growth. The first ration—that on which the egg is laid—will last longer than the others, and must be small, for the little grub will take several days to eat it, and if too big it would go bad before it was finished. Therefore it will not be a huge gadfly or a corpulent Bombylius, but a small Sphærophoria, or something of that kind, as a tender meal for a still frail larva. Later, and gradually larger, will come the bigger joints. In the mother’s absence the burrow must be closed to prevent awkward intrusions, but the entrance must be one opened quickly, without serious difficulty, when the Hymenopteron returns loaded with prey, and laid in wait for by audacious parasites. These conditions would be wanting in a tenacious soil, such as that in which the mining Hymenoptera habitually [ ]establish themselves. The wide-open entrance would each time require long and painful labour, whether to close it with earth or gravel, or to clear it. The domicile, therefore, must be hollowed in earth with a very light surface, in dry, fine sand, yielding at once to the least effort of the mother, and which slips and closes the entrance like floating tapestry, which, pushed back by the hand, allows entrance and then drops back. Such is the sequence of acts, deduced by human reason, and put into practice by the wisdom of the Bembex. 236 Why does the spoiler kill the prey instead of paralysing it? Is it want of skill with the sting? Is it a difficulty arising from the organisation of the Diptera or from the manœuvres of the chase? I must own, at once, that I have failed to put a Dipteron, without killing it, into that state of complete immobility into which it is so easy to plunge a Buprestis, a Weevil, or a Scarabæus, by injecting a little drop of ammonia, on the point of a needle, into the thoracic ganglia. It is difficult to render your subject motionless; when it no longer moves, actual death has occurred, as is proved by its speedy decay or desiccation. But I have too much confidence in the resources of instinct,—I have seen the ingenious solution of too many problems,—to believe that a difficulty, though insurmountable for the experimenter, can baffle an insect; therefore, without casting doubt on the Bembex’s capacity for murder, I should be inclined to seek other motives. Perhaps the Dipteron, so thinly cuirassed, of so little substance,—so lean, in short,—could not, when [ ]paralysed by a sting, resist evaporation, and would dry up in two or three weeks. Consider the slender Sphærophoria—the larva’s first mouthful. What is there in this body to evaporate? An atom—a mere nothing. The body is a thin strip—its two walls touch. Could such prey form a basis for preserved food when a few hours would evaporate its juices, unrenewed by nutrition? To say the least, it is doubtful. 237 Let us proceed to consider the manner of hunting, by way of throwing a final light on the subject. In prey withdrawn from the clasp of a Bembex, one may not infrequently observe indications of a capture made in haste, as best might be, in the chances of a wild struggle. Sometimes the Dipteron has its head turned backward, as if its neck had been twisted, its wings are crumpled, and its hairs, if it have any, are ruffled. I have seen one with the body ripped open by a bite from the mandibles, and legs lost in the battle. Usually, however, the prey is intact. No matter. Considering that the game has wings prompt in flight, the capture must be made with a suddenness which it seems to me hardly allows of obtaining paralysis without death. A Cerceris with its heavy weevil, a Sphex engaged with a corpulent grasshopper or a paunched ephippiger, an Ammophila holding its caterpillar by the nape of its neck, have all three the advantage over a prey too slow to avoid attack. They may take their time, choose at leisure the exact spot where the sting shall penetrate, and, in short, can act with the precision of a physiologist who uses his scalpel on a patient laid upon the [ ]operating table; but for the Bembex it is another matter. At the least alarm the prey is off, and its power of wing defies that of the pursuer. The Hymenopteron must pounce on its prey, without measuring its attack or calculating its blow, like a hawk hunting over the fallows. Mandibles, claws, sting—all weapons—must be used at the same moment in the hot battle, to end as fast as possible a struggle in which the least indecision would give the prey time to escape. If these conjectures agree with facts, the Bembex can only secure a dead body, or, at all events, a prey wounded to death. 238 Well, my calculations are right. The Bembex attacks with an energy which would do honour to a bird of prey. To surprise one on the chase is no easy matter, and it would be useless to lay in a stock of patience and watch near the burrow, for the insect flies to a distance, and it is impossible to follow its rapid evolutions, and doubtless its manœuvres would be still unknown to me but for the help of an article from which I should assuredly never have expected a like service—namely, the umbrella which served me as a tent amid the sands of Issarts. I was not the only one to profit by its shade; my companions were usually numerous. Gadflies of different kinds would take refuge under the silken canopy, and roost peacefully here and there on the outspread silk, rarely failing to appear when the heat was overpowering. To pass the hours when I was unemployed, I used to observe with pleasure their great gilded eyes shining like carbuncles under my canopy, or their grave movements when some spot [ ]of their ceiling became too much heated, and they were forced to move a little way. 239 One day—ping! ping! the tense silk was resounding like the parchment of a drum. Perhaps an acorn has fallen on my umbrella. Soon after, close together, came ping! ping! Has some idle jester come to disturb my solitude, and fling acorns or little pebbles on my umbrella? I came out of my tent and inspected the neighbourhood. Nothing! The blow was repeated. I looked upward, and the mystery was explained. The Bembecids of the neighbourhood, which prey on gadflies, had found out the rich store of food which was keeping me company, and were darting audaciously under my shelter to seize the gadflies on the ceiling. Nothing could have been better. I had only to keep quiet and observe. Every moment a Bembex entered like a sudden flash, and darted up to the silken ceiling, which resounded with a dull thud. A tumult went on aloft, in which one could not distinguish attacker from attacked, so lively was the mêlée. The struggle was very brief; almost at once the Hymenopteron retired with a captive between its feet. The dull band of gadflies drew a little back all round on this sudden irruption, which decimated them, but without leaving the treacherous shelter. It was so hot outside; wherefore move? Plainly, such swift attack and prompt departure with the prey does not allow the Bembex to use a poignard according to rules. The sting no doubt fulfils its office, but is directed with no precision towards such spots as are exposed by the chances of the combat. To slay outright the [ ]half-murdered gadfly, still struggling between the feet of its assassin, I have seen the Bembex chew the head and thorax of her victim. This habit, peculiar to the Bembecids, shows that the Bembex desires death, not paralysis, since she ends the life of the Diptera with so little ceremony. Everything considered, I think that on the one side the nature of the prey, so quickly dried up, and on the other, the difficulties of so vehement an attack, are the reasons why the Bembecids serve up dead prey to their larvæ, and consequently provide it daily. 240 BEMBEX ROSTRATA TAKING GADFLY TO ITS NEST; BEMBEX ROSTRATA MINING Let us follow the Hymenopteron when it returns with its captive closely clasped to the burrow. Here is one—B. tarsata—coming loaded with a Bombylius. The nest is placed at the sandy foot of a vertical slope, and the approach of the Bembex is announced by a sharp humming, somewhat plaintive, and only ceasing when the insect has alighted. One sees her hover above the bank, then descend, following the vertical line slowly and cautiously, still emitting the sharp hum. If her keen gaze should discover anything unusual, she delays her descent, hovers a moment, ascends again, redescends, then flies away, swift as an arrow. In a few moments she returns. Hovering at a certain height she appears to inspect the locality, as if from the top of an observatory. The vertical descent is resumed with most circumspect deliberation; finally, she alights without hesitation at a spot which to my eye has nothing to distinguish it from the rest of the sandy surface. The plaintive note ceases at once. She must have alighted somewhat by chance, since the most practised eye could not distinguish one spot from another [ ]on the sandy tract. She will have dropped down somewhere near her hole, whose entrance she will now seek, marked since her last exit not only by the natural falling in of materials, but by her scrupulous sweeping. No! she does not hesitate in the least—does not feel about—does not seek. All have agreed that the organs fitted to direct insects in their researches reside in the antennæ. At the moment of returning to the nest I see nothing special in their play. Without once losing hold of the prey the Bembex scratches a little in front of her just where she alighted, pushes with her head, and straightway enters clasping the Dipteron to her body. The sand falls in, the door closes, and the Hymenopteron is at home. 241 I have watched the Bembex return home a hundred times, yet it is always with fresh astonishment that I see the keen-sighted insect at once detect an entrance which nothing indicates, and which indeed is jealously hidden—not indeed when she has entered (for the sand, more or less fallen in, does not become level, and now leaves a slight depression, now a porch incompletely obstructed), but always after she comes out, for when going on an expedition she never neglects to efface the traces of the sliding sand. Let us await her departure, and we shall see that she sweeps before her door and levels everything scrupulously. When she is gone, I defy the keenest eye to rediscover the entrance. To find it when the sandy tract was of some extent I was forced to have recourse to a kind of triangulation, and how often did my triangle and efforts of memory prove vain after a few hours’ absence! I [ ]was obliged to have recourse to a stake—in other words, a grass stalk planted before the entrance—a means not always effectual, for it often disappeared during the frequent settings to rights of the outside of the Bembex’s nest. 242 About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jean-Henri Fabre (2022). Insect life: Souvenirs of a naturalist. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66762/pg66762-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

HUNTING DIPTERA

THE MANTIS: HER HUNTING

More Hunting Wasps by Jean-Henri Fabre is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon! : More Hunting Wasps Title : Jean-Henri Fabre Author : Alexander Teixeira de Mattos Translator : October 1, 2002 [eBook #3462] Most recently updated: January 23, 2013 Release date : English Language Table of Links Chapters THE POMPILI THE SCOLIAE. A DANGEROUS DIET. THE CETONIA-LARVA. THE PROBLEM OF THE SCOLIAE. THE TACHYTES. CHANGE OF DIET. A DIG AT THE EVOLUTIONISTS. RATIONING ACCORDING TO SEX. THE BEE-EATING PHILANTHUS. THE METHOD OF THE AMMOPHILAE. THE METHOD OF THE SCOLIAE. THE METHOD OF THE CALICURGI. OBJECTIONS AND REJOINDERS. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jean-Henri Fabre (2002). More Hunting Wasps. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3462/pg3462-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

More Hunting Wasps by Jean-Henri Fabre - Table of Links

Insect Adventures by Jean-Henri Fabre and Louise Hasbrouck Zimm, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE TRUFFLE-HUNTING BEETLE CHAPTER XVI. THE TRUFFLE-HUNTING BEETLE BEFORE we come to the Beetle, I must first tell you about my friend, the Dog, who hunts truffles, which are underground mushrooms. Dogs are quite often used for this purpose, and I have had the good fortune on several occasions to go with a Dog who was a great expert in this line. He was certainly nothing to look at, this artist whom I was so anxious to see at work: just a Dog, placid and deliberate in his ways, ugly, unkempt; the sort of Dog you would never have at your own fireside. Talent and poverty often go hand in hand. His master, a celebrated truffle-gatherer in the village, was at first afraid that I wanted to steal his secrets and set up a rival business, but when he found that I only made drawings of mushrooms and set down lists of underground vegetable things, he let me join his expeditions. It was agreed between us that the Dog should act as he pleased and receive a bit of bread as his reward after each discovery, no matter whether the underground mushroom he discovered was a real truffle, the kind people like to eat, or an uneatable one. In no case was the master to drive the dog away from a spot where experience told him there was nothing salable to be found. As far as my studies went, I did not care whether the mushrooms were edible or not. Conducted in this way, the expedition was very successful. The busy Dog trotted along with his nose to the wind, at a moderate pace. Every little while he stopped, questioned the ground with his nostrils, scratched for a few seconds, without too much excitement, then looked up at his master as if to say: “Here we are, here we are! On my word of honor as a Dog, there’s a truffle here.” And he spoke the truth. The master dug at the spot indicated. If the trowel went astray, the Dog showed the man how to put it right by sniffing at the bottom of the hole. The mushroom was always there. A Dog’s nose cannot lie. But he made us gather all sorts of underground mushrooms: the large and the small, the fresh and the decayed, the scented and the unscented, the fragrant and those which were the reverse. I was surprised at my collection, which included most of the underground fungi of the neighborhood. Is it smell as we understand it that guides the Dog in his search? I do not believe that it is, otherwise he would not point out so many varieties which smell so very different. He must perceive something that we cannot. It is a mistake to compare everything by human standards. There are more sensations in the world than we know of. Such secrets are known to insects better than to other animals, like the Dog or the Pig, who also hunts truffles with its nose. We will hear now about the Truffle-hunting Beetle. This is a pretty little black Beetle, with a pale and velvety belly, round as a cherry-stone and much the same size. By rubbing the tip of its abdomen against the edge of its wing-cases it makes a soft chirrup like that which little birds make when their mother comes with their food. The male wears a graceful horn on his head. I found these Beetles in a certain pine-woods where there are plenty of mushrooms. It is a pleasant place, where my whole family like to go in the mild days of autumn. They find everything there: old Magpies’ nests, made of bundles of twigs; Jays squabbling with each other, after filling their crops with acorns on the oaks hard by; Rabbits suddenly starting out of a rosemary bush, showing their little white upturned tails. There is lovely sand for the children to dig tunnels in, sand that is easy to build into rows of huts which we thatch with moss and top with a bit of reed by way of a chimney. And when we are there we lunch off an apple to the sound of the Æolian harps of the breezes softly sighing through the pine-needles! Yes, for the children it is a real paradise. The grown-ups also enjoy it, and one of my chief enjoyments is watching my Truffle-beetle. His burrows may be seen here and there. The door is left open and surrounded merely by a padding of sand. The burrow is about nine inches deep, going straight down in very loose soil. When I cut into it with a knife, I often find that it is empty. The insect has left during the night, having finished its business there and gone to settle elsewhere. The Truffle-beetle is a tramp, a night-walker, who leaves his home whenever he feels like it and easily gets a new one. Sometimes I do find the insect at the bottom of the pit, always alone, sometimes a male, sometimes a female, never two at the same time. The burrow is not a house for the family; it is a sort of bachelor house, dug for comfort only for the solitary Beetle. The Beetle in this house is clutching a small mushroom, usually partly eaten. He will not part from it. It is his treasure, his worldly goods. Scattered crumbs tell us that we have caught him feasting. When we take his prize away from him we find that it is a sort of little underground mushroom, closely related to the truffle. This throws a light upon the habits of the Beetle and his reason for making new burrows so often. In the calm of the twilight, the little gadabout takes to the fields, chirruping softly as he goes, cheering himself with song. He explores the soil, questions it as to its contents, just as the Dog does when hunting for truffles. His sense of smell tells him when the coveted morsel is underneath, covered by a few inches of sand. Certain of the exact spot where the thing lies, he digs straight down and never fails to reach it. As long as the provisions last, he does not go out again. Blissfully he feeds at the bottom of the well he has dug to reach the mushroom. He does not care whether his door is open or not. When he has eaten all his food, he moves, looking for more, and to find it he digs a new burrow, which will be given up in its turn. Thus he spends all autumn and the next spring, the seasons for mushrooms, traveling from one of his little hotels to another. This truffle which the Beetle hunts appears to have no particular odor. How, then, can he detect it from the ground over the place where it is buried? He is a clever Beetle, and we do not know yet just how he manages it. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jean-Henri Fabre and Louise Hasbrouck Zimm (2014). Insect Adventures. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45812/pg45812-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

THE TRUFFLE-HUNTING BEETLE

Insect Adventures by Jean-Henri Fabre and Louise Hasbrouck Zimm, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE FLY-HUNTING WASP CHAPTER X. THE FLY-HUNTING WASP YOU have read about the Wasps who store up paralyzed Caterpillars and Crickets for their babies’ food, then close up the cells and fly away; now you shall hear about a Wasp who feeds her children with fresh food from day to day. This is the Bembex, or the Fly-hunting Wasp, as I shall call her. This Wasp digs her burrows in very soft, light sand, under a blazing sun and a blue sky. I go out and watch her sometimes on an unshaded plain where it is so hot that the only way to avoid sunstroke is to lie down at full length behind some sandy knoll, put one’s head down a rabbit-burrow, or provide one’s self with a large umbrella. The latter is what I did. If the reader will sit with me under the umbrella at the end of July, he will see the following sight. A Fly-hunting Wasp arrives suddenly and alights, without any hesitation, at a spot which to my eyes looks exactly like the rest of the sandy surface. With her front feet, which are armed with rows of stiff hairs and remind one at the same time of a broom, a brush, and a rake, she works at clearing her underground dwelling. The insect stands on her four hind-legs, while the front ones first scratch and then sweep the shifting sand. She shoots the sand backwards so fast that it gushes in a curve like a stream of water, falling to the ground seven or eight inches away. This spray of dust is kept up evenly for five or ten minutes at a time by the swift, graceful Wasp. Mingled with this dust are tiny bits of wood, decayed leaf stalks, particles of grit and other rubbish. The Wasp picks them up in her mouth and carries them away. This is really the purpose of her digging. She is sifting out the sand at the entrance to her home, which is all ready underground, having been dug some time before. The Wasp wishes to make the sand at the entrance to her burrow fine, light, and free from any obstacle, so that when she alights suddenly with a Fly for her children, she can dig an entrance to her home quickly. She does this work in her spare time, when her larva has enough food to last it for a while, so that she does not need to go hunting. She seems happy as she works so fast and eagerly, and who knows that she is not expressing in this way her mother’s satisfaction in watching over the roof of her house where her baby lives? If we should take a knife and dig down into the sand where the Wasp-mother is scratching, we should find, first, an entrance corridor, as wide as one’s finger, and perhaps eight to twelve inches long, and then a room, hollowed out down below where the sand is damper and firmer. It is large enough to contain two or three walnuts; but all it does hold at present is a Fly, a golden-green Greenbottle, with a tiny white egg laid on the side. This is the Wasp’s egg. It will hatch out in about twenty-four hours, into a little worm, which will feed on the dead Fly. For the Fly is dead, and not paralyzed, as the food of other Wasp-babies often is. At the end of two or three days the Wasp-grub will have eaten up the little Fly. Meanwhile the mother Wasp remains in the neighborhood and you see her sometimes feeding herself by sipping the honey of the field flowers, sometimes settling happily on the burning sand, no doubt watching the outside of the house. Every now and then she sifts the sand at the entrance; then she flies away for a while. But, however long she may stay away, she never forgets the young larva who has food enough to last only a short time; her mother’s instinct tells her the hour when the grub has finished its food and wants more. She therefore returns to the nest, which, you must remember, does not show in the least from the surface of the ground, as the shifting sand has filled in the entrance; she knows, however, exactly where to look for it; she goes down into the earth, this time carrying a larger piece of game. After leaving this in the underground room she again leaves the house and waits outside until the time comes to serve a third course. This is not long, for the little worm is getting a larger appetite all the time. Again the mother appears with another Fly. For nearly two weeks, while the larva is growing up, the meals thus follow in succession, one by one, as needed, and coming closer together as the infant grows larger. Towards the end of the two weeks, the mother is kept as busy as she can be satisfying her hungry child, now a large, fat grub. You see her at every moment coming back with a fresh capture, at every moment setting out again upon the chase. She does not cease her efforts until the grub is stuffed full and refuses its food. I have counted and found that sometimes the grub will eat as many as eighty-two Flies. I have wondered sometimes why this Wasp does not lay up a store of food, as the other Wasps do, close the door of her burrow and fly away, instead of waiting about, as she does so patiently. I realize that she does not do so because her Flies would not keep; they would spoil and be unfit for eating. But why does she kill the Fly instead of paralyzing it? Possibly because the Fly would not make a satisfactory preserved food; it is so slight and frail, it would shrivel up and there would be nothing of it; it must be eaten fresh to be worth anything. Another reason almost certainly is that the Fly has to be captured very quickly, on the wing. There is not time for the Wasp to aim her sting, as the Wasps do who are killing clumsy Worms or fat Crickets on the ground. She must attack with claws, mouth or sting wherever she can, and this method of attack kills at once. It is not easy to surprise a Wasp hunting, as she flies far away from where her burrow lies; but one day I had a quite unexpected experience as I was sitting in the hot sun under my umbrella. I was not the only one to enjoy the shade of the umbrella. Gad-flies of various kinds would take refuge under the silken dome and sit peacefully on every part of the tightly stretched cover. To while away the hours when I had nothing to do, it amused me to watch their great gold eyes, which shone like carbuncles under my umbrella; I loved to follow their solemn progress when some part of the ceiling became too hot and obliged them to move a little way on. One day, bang! The tight cover resounded like the skin of a drum. Perhaps an oak had dropped an acorn on the umbrella. Presently, one after the other, bang, bang, bang! Can some practical joker be flinging acorns or little pebbles at my umbrella? I leave my tent and look around: nothing! I hear the same sharp sounds again. I look up at the ceiling and the mystery is explained. The Fly-hunting Wasps of the neighborhood, who all eat Gad-flies, had discovered the rich game that was keeping me company and were impudently coming into my shelter to seize the Flies on the ceiling. Things were going to perfection: I had only to sit still and look. Every moment a Wasp would enter, swift as lightning, and dart up to the silken ceiling, which resounded with a sharp thud. Some rumpus was going on aloft, where so lively was the fray that one could not tell which was attacker, which attacked. The struggle did not last long: the Wasp would soon retire with a victim between her legs. The dull herd of Gad-flies would not leave the dangerous shelter. It was so hot outside! Why get excited? “One day, bang!” Let us watch the Wasp as she returns to the burrow with her capture held under her body between her legs. As she draws near her home, she makes a shrill humming, which has something plaintive about it and which lasts until the insect sets foot to earth. The Wasp hovers above the sand and then dips down, very slowly and cautiously, all the time humming. If her keen eyes see anything unusual, she slows up in her descent, hovers for a second or two, goes up again, comes down again and flies away, swift as an arrow. We shall see in a few moments what it is that makes her hesitate. Soon she is back again, looks at things once more from a height, then comes down slowly and alights at a spot which looks exactly like the rest of the sandy surface. I think she has landed more or less on chance, and will now look about for the entrance to her home. But no; she is exactly over her burrow. Without once letting go her prey, she scratches a little in front of her, gives a push with her head, and at once enters, carrying the Fly. The sand falls in, the door closes, and the Wasp is at home. It makes no difference that I have seen this Wasp return to her nest hundreds of times; I am always astonished to behold the keen-sighted insect find without hesitation a door which does not show at all. The Wasp does not always hesitate in the air before alighting at her house, and when she does, it is because she sees her nest is threatened by a very grave danger. Her plaintive hum shows anxiety; she never gives it when there is no peril. But who is the enemy? It is a miserable little Fly, feeble and harmless in appearance, whom we have mentioned in another chapter. The Wasp, the scourge of the Fly-tribe, the fierce slayer of large Gad-flies, does not enter her home because she sees herself watched by another Fly, a tiny dwarf, who would make scarcely a mouthful for her larvæ. I feel just as I should if I saw my Cat fleeing in terror from a Mouse. Why does the Wasp not pounce upon the little wretch of a Fly and get rid of her? I do not know. It must be because this wretched little Fly has her tiny part to play in the universe, as well as the Wasp. These things are ordered somehow, in a way we do not understand. As I shall mention elsewhere, this is the Fly that lays her eggs on the game the Wasp puts in the nest for her own baby; and the Fly’s offspring eat the food of the Wasp-grub, and sometimes eat the grub itself, if provisions are scarce. The way the Fly manages her business is interesting. She never enters the Wasp’s burrow, but she waits with the greatest patience for the moment when the Wasp dives into her home, with her game clasped between her legs. Just as she has half her body well within the entrance and is about to disappear underground, the Fly dashes up and settles on the piece of game that projects a little way beyond the hinder end of the Wasp; and while the latter is delayed by the difficulty of entering, the former, with wonderful swiftness, lays an egg on the prey, or even two or three in quick succession. The hesitation of the Wasp, hampered by her load, lasts but the twinkling of an eye. No matter: the Gnat has accomplished what she wished to, and now she goes and squats in the sun, close to the burrow, and plans fresh deeds of darkness. A number of these Flies, usually three or four, are apt to station themselves on the sand at one time near a burrow, of which they well know the entrance, carefully hidden though it be. Their dull-brown color, their great blood-red eyes, their astonishing patience, have often reminded me of a picture of brigands, clad in dark clothes, with red handkerchiefs around their heads, waiting in ambush for an opportunity to hold up some travelers. It is when the poor Wasp sees these brigands that she hesitates. At last she comes nearer, however. The Midges then take flight and follow behind the Wasp. If she turns, they turn also, so as to keep exactly behind her; if she advances, they advance; if she retreats, they retreat. She cannot keep them off. At last she grows weary and alights; they also alight, still behind her. The Wasp darts off again, with an indignant whimpering; the Midges dart after her. The Wasp tries one more way to get rid of them. She flies far away at full speed, hoping that they will follow and lose their way. But they know too much for that. They settle down on the sand again near the burrow and wait for her to come back. Come she does; the pursuit begins all over again; the mother’s patience is worn out, and at last they have a chance to lay their eggs as she goes into the burrow. We shall end our chapter with the story of the Wasp-grub to whom no accidents happen, into whose burrow no nasty Fly-eggs enter. For two weeks it eats and grows; then it begins to weave its cocoon. It has not very much silk in its body to use for this, so it uses grains of sand to strengthen it. First it pushes away the remains of its food and forces them into a corner of the cell. Then, having swept its floor, it fixes to the different walls of its room threads of a beautiful white silk, forming a web which makes a kind of scaffold for the next work. It then weaves a hammock of silk in the center of the threads. This hammock is like a sack open wide at one end and closed at the other in a point. The grub, leaning half out of its hammock, picks up the sand almost grain by grain with its mouth. If any grain found is too large, it is thrown away. When the sand is sorted in this way, the grub brings some into the hammock in its mouth, and begins to spread it in an even layer on the lower side of the hammock-sack; it adds grains also to the upper side, fixing them in the silk as one would place stones in putty. The cocoon is still open at one end. It is time to close it. The grub weaves a cap of silk which fits the mouth of the sack exactly, and lays grains of sand one by one upon this foundation. The cocoon is all finished now, except that the grub gives some finishing touches to the inside by glazing the walls with varnish to protect its delicate skin from the rough sand. It then goes peacefully to sleep, to wait for its transformation into a Wasp like its mother. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jean-Henri Fabre and Louise Hasbrouck Zimm (2014). Insect Adventures. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45812/pg45812-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

THE FLY-HUNTING WASP

THE GARDEN SPIDERS: PAIRING AND HUNTING

The indigenous North American tribes of the Blackfeet, Cree, Snake, and Crow were known for their expert hunting skills, particularly when it came to hunting the mighty buffalo. These tribes would use various techniques to lure a herd of buffalo toward the edge of a cliff or steep slope, causing many of the animals to fall to their death. This hunting technique was effective because the buffalo were known to be easily spooked and would run as a stampede in one direction with their heads down, unable to see above the herd. This made them vulnerable to following one another over the cliff, not knowing where they were headed. The story of the indigenous North American tribes hunting buffalo is an illustrative example of how easy it is to manipulate people who rely too heavily on social evidence. Just as the buffalo blindly followed each other over the cliff, people can also be easily swayed by the actions of others without fully considering the consequences of their decisions. This concept is exemplified in the current crypto and NFT market, where over $25 trillion and counting has been lost to scams and rug pulls. Just as it was easy to lead a herd of buffalo in one direction, scam projects were able to capitalize on the hype surrounding NFTs to sell out to unsuspecting investors. This was due to the initial success of a few early NFT projects, which had many people convinced that NFTs were the next big thing and that anything labeled as an NFT was automatically valuable. It is not uncommon for individuals and businesses to become overly enthusiastic about new technologies, and in their haste to profit from them, make hasty investments in teams and projects that ultimately prove to be unrealistic or unviable. This phenomenon is a common occurrence during every cycle of technological adoption. The initial phase of technological adoption is characterized by excitement and a rush to capitalize on its potential. However, when this excitement subsides, usually following a market crash, the technology is then put to practical and appropriate use, where it can be leveraged to achieve tangible results. This is the second phase of technological adoption where individuals and businesses use the technology in a more measured and strategic way. People suffered financial losses due to misperceptions about NFTs being a "golden goose". NFTs are tools that require proper utilization. NFTs offer a unique set of characteristics, such as exclusivity, rarity, and authenticity, which can be leveraged by businesses for various purposes. However, for these attributes to have real value, it is essential that companies are able to utilize them in ways that are meaningful to their business. One potential application of NFTs is in utilizing them for targeted marketing of specialized offerings. Utilizing NFTs as a Tool for Marketing Specialized Offerings Specialized offerings, such as custom-made products and tailored services, are designed to meet the specific needs and preferences of a particular customer segment. As a business, have you considered utilizing the unique capabilities of NFTs to promote and market these specialized offerings? Just as in the NFT art market, where creators use NFTs to authenticate and sell their digital works to buyers who value the rarity and uniqueness of these one-of-a-kind creations, businesses can also use NFTs to showcase their specialized offerings and connect with consumers in an engaging and impactful way. By leveraging the unique characteristics of NFTs, such as creating one-of-a-kind digital assets, businesses can increase brand awareness and drive sales. NFTs appeal to collectors and are niche-focused, making them ideal for promoting specialized offerings. Additionally, NFTs can be used to create exclusivity, further enhancing their value as a marketing tool for specialized offerings. Why NFTs Are Ideal for Specialized Offerings The Ability to Appeal to Collectors NFTs are widely recognized as representing rare and unique collectibles, making them a perfect fit for conveying the exclusivity and rarity of specialized offerings. Specialized offerings, such as premium or luxury products or services, are often highly valued for their unique features and superior quality. By utilizing NFTs to market these specialized offerings, businesses can further emphasize the exclusivity and rarity of their products or services, making them more appealing to consumers who are looking for something unique and valuable. Furthermore, NFTs can be used to authenticate the uniqueness and exclusivity of the specialized offerings, which can also increase the perceived value of the product or service. NFTs Are Often Considered Niche-Focused NFTs are often perceived as niche-focused, catering to a specific audience with unique interests and passions. Due to the exclusivity of these specialized offerings, they appeal to a select few who appreciate their value and are willing to pay a premium for them. This targeted approach ensures that the specialized offerings will reach the right audience and be better received. Their niche focus allows them to be used to create a sense of exclusivity in the user experience. NFTs offer a unique way to create exclusivity and manage access to specialized offerings. As a fashion designer, for example, you can release a range of exclusive luxury designs that are only available to your NFT holders. You can create a members-only website where only NFT holders are able to make purchases, ensuring that your designs remain exclusive and highly sought-after. Similarly, if you are organizing a members-only event, NFTs can serve as entry tickets, providing a secure and verifiable way to ensure that only the right people gain access to the event. Overall, NFTs offer a powerful tool for creating exclusivity and managing access to specialized offerings, making them an increasingly popular choice among artists, designers, and event organizers. NFTs serve as a unique and innovative marketing strategy, allowing creators and businesses to associate various advantages with owning and possessing a specific NFT, thereby driving interest and engagement among potential buyers.

Buffalo Hunting & NFTs: A Lesson in Manipulation and the Power of NFTs as a Marketing Tool

The Wonderful Visit by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . The Hunting of the Strange Bird. The Hunting of the Strange Bird. III. The Vicar of Siddermorton (which is nine miles inland from Siddermouth as the crow flies) was an ornithologist. Some such pursuit, botany, antiquity, folk-lore, is almost inevitable for a single man in his position. He was given to geometry also, propounding occasionally impossible problems in the Educational Times, but ornithology was his forte. He had already added two visitors to the list of occasional British birds. His name was well-known in the columns of the Zoologist (I am afraid it may be forgotten by now, for the world moves apace). And on the day after the coming of the Strange Bird, came first one and then another to confirm the ploughman's story and tell him, not that it had any connection, of the Glare upon Sidderford moor. Now, the Vicar of Siddermorton had two rivals in his scientific pursuits; Gully of Sidderton, who had actually seen the glare, and who it was sent the drawing to Nature, and Borland the natural history dealer, who kept the marine laboratory at Portburdock. Borland, the Vicar thought, should have stuck to his copepods, but instead he kept a taxidermist, and took advantage of his littoral position to pick up rare sea birds. It was evident to anyone who knew anything of collecting that both these men would be scouring the country after the strange visitant, before twenty-four hours were out. The Vicar's eye rested on the back of Saunders' British Birds, for he was in his study at the time. Already in two places there was entered: "the only known British specimen was secured by the Rev. K. Hilyer, Vicar of Siddermorton." A third such entry. He doubted if any other collector had that. He looked at his watch—two. He had just lunched, and usually he "rested" in the afternoon. He knew it would make him feel very disagreeable if he went out into the hot sunshine—both on the top of his head and generally. Yet Gully perhaps was out, prowling observant. Suppose it was something very good and Gully got it! His gun stood in the corner. (The thing had iridiscent wings and pink legs! The chromatic conflict was certainly exceedingly stimulating). He took his gun. He would have gone out by the glass doors and verandah, and down the garden into the hill road, in order to avoid his housekeeper's eye. He knew his gun expeditions were not approved of. But advancing towards him up the garden, he saw the curate's wife and her two daughters, carrying tennis rackets. His curate's wife was a young woman of immense will, who used to play tennis on his lawn, and cut his roses, differ from him on doctrinal points, and criticise his personal behaviour all over the parish. He went in abject fear of her, was always trying to propitiate her. But so far he had clung to his ornithology.... However, he went out by the front door. IV. If it were not for collectors England would be full, so to speak, of rare birds and wonderful butterflies, strange flowers and a thousand interesting things. But happily the collector prevents all that, either killing with his own hands or, by buying extravagantly, procuring people of the lower classes to kill such eccentricities as appear. It makes work for people, even though Acts of Parliament interfere. In this way, for instance, he is killing off the chough in Cornwall, the Bath white butterfly, the Queen of Spain Fritillary; and can plume himself upon the extermination of the Great Auk, and a hundred other rare birds and plants and insects. All that is the work of the collector and his glory alone. In the name of Science. And this is right and as it should be; eccentricity, in fact, is immorality—think over it again if you do not think so now—just as eccentricity in one's way of thinking is madness (I defy you to find another definition that will fit all the cases of either); and if a species is rare it follows that it is not Fitted to Survive. The collector is after all merely like the foot soldier in the days of heavy armour—he leaves the combatants alone and cuts the throats of those who are overthrown. So one may go through England from end to end in the summer time and see only eight or ten commonplace wild flowers, and the commoner butterflies, and a dozen or so common birds, and never be offended by any breach of the monotony, any splash of strange blossom or flutter of unknown wing. All the rest have been "collected" years ago. For which cause we should all love Collectors, and bear in mind what we owe them when their little collections are displayed. These camphorated little drawers of theirs, their glass cases and blotting-paper books, are the graves of the Rare and the Beautiful, the symbols of the Triumph of Leisure (morally spent) over the Delights of Life. (All of which, as you very properly remark, has nothing whatever to do with the Strange Bird.) V. There is a place on the moor where the black water shines among the succulent moss, and the hairy sundew, eater of careless insects, spreads its red-stained hungry hands to the God who gives his creatures—one to feed another. On a ridge thereby grow birches with a silvery bark, and the soft green of the larch mingles with the dark green fir. Thither through the honey humming heather came the Vicar, in the heat of the day, carrying a gun under his arm, a gun loaded with swanshot for the Strange Bird. And over his disengaged hand he carried a pocket handkerchief wherewith, ever and again, he wiped his beady face. He went by and on past the big pond and the pool full of brown leaves where the Sidder arises, and so by the road (which is at first sandy and then chalky) to the little gate that goes into the park. There are seven steps up to the gate and on the further side six down again—lest the deer escape—so that when the Vicar stood in the gateway his head was ten feet or more above the ground. And looking where a tumult of bracken fronds filled the hollow between two groups of beech, his eye caught something parti-coloured that wavered and went. Suddenly his face gleamed and his muscles grew tense; he ducked his head, clutched his gun with both hands, and stood still. Then watching keenly, he came on down the steps into the park, and still holding his gun in both hands, crept rather than walked towards the jungle of bracken. Nothing stirred, and he almost feared that his eyes had played him false, until he reached the ferns and had gone rustling breast high into them. Then suddenly rose something full of wavering colours, twenty yards or less in front of his face, and beating the air. In another moment it had fluttered above the bracken and spread its pinions wide. He saw what it was, his heart was in his mouth, and he fired out of pure surprise and habit. There was a scream of superhuman agony, the wings beat the air twice, and the victim came slanting swiftly downward and struck the ground—a struggling heap of writhing body, broken wing and flying bloodstained plumes—upon the turfy slope behind. The Vicar stood aghast, with his smoking gun in his hand. It was no bird at all, but a youth with an extremely beautiful face, clad in a robe of saffron and with iridescent wings, across whose pinions great waves of colour, flushes of purple and crimson, golden green and intense blue, pursued one another as he writhed in his agony. Never had the Vicar seen such gorgeous floods of colour, not stained glass windows, not the wings of butterflies, not even the glories of crystals seen between prisms, no colours on earth could compare with them. Twice the Angel raised himself, only to fall over sideways again. Then the beating of the wings diminished, the terrified face grew pale, the floods of colour abated, and suddenly with a sob he lay prone, and the changing hues of the broken wings faded swiftly into one uniform dull grey hue. "Oh! what has happened to me?" cried the Angel (for such it was), shuddering violently, hands outstretched and clutching the ground, and then lying still. "Dear me!" said the Vicar. "I had no idea." He came forward cautiously. "Excuse me," he said, "I am afraid I have shot you." It was the obvious remark. The Angel seemed to become aware of his presence for the first time. He raised himself by one hand, his brown eyes stared into the Vicar's. Then, with a gasp, and biting his nether lip, he struggled into a sitting position and surveyed the Vicar from top to toe. "A man!" said the Angel, clasping his forehead; "a man in the maddest black clothes and without a feather upon him. Then I was not deceived. I am indeed in the Land of Dreams!" About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2010). The Wonderful Visit. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33913/33913-h/33913-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Hunting of the Strange Bird

In this article, I am going to give you a simple strategy anyone can use to start threat hunting today. Linux, Windows, Mac, desktop, server….I don’t care it works on all of them! When people think of threat hunting, there are a few hurdles to overcome: It’s a profoundly technical space, wrapped up inside another technical space. This means that once you feel like you have figured out your job, threat hunting will knock you down a few pegs. The advice that you find online isn’t pragmatic. I mean it’s hard to find advice that you can take and directly apply to your environment or systems. Many “threat hunting guides” are white papers created by vendors. They are useful, and they do help, but at the core of the how-to is an advertisement for their tech. This can make it hard for you to take the lessons learned and deploy them. That first step can be a doozy. As if it wasn’t already hard enough, you can mess this whole thing up before you begin, if you pick the wrong starting point. Finally choosing where to start your threat hunt is the hardest part. Step one (Learn TTPs) Fire up your favorite terminal emulator and….no not yet. The first step is to become familiar with attacker TTPs. TTPs are tactics techniques and procedures, the real attacker thingies they do. You can learn about common TTPs by spending quality time with the attack framework. In the MITRE ATTACK framework, there are 15 categories, of which only a few need your attention right now. We’ll focus on Execution, Persistence Privilege Escalation & lateral movement. MITRE Why these ones? Because these categories have TTPs in them that are easier to find, through telemetry and log analysis. The other categories are still very valuable, but as a starting point for today, it is hard to beat these four. Step two (Establish a baseline) Know what’s normal. A lot of threat hunting is actually just looking for weird things. Threats and risks are usually anomalous activities, and the only way to spot an anomaly is to understand what is normal. So what does this look like? How do you do this? I will give an example to help guide your imagination, but ultimately you have to take this idea and make it your own. If your organization has an application that runs on several servers you need to get familiar with the behavior of the admins of these servers and the operation of the servers. This can mean talking to the people who maintain it (if it’s not already you) or it can mean regularly reviewing logs to identify normal patterns. I would approach this in the same way if I was told that I was responsible for the operation of those servers and the app. I would be asking questions like “How often do you log into these servers?” “Do you have SUDO properly configured?” “Do you have monitoring?”, “how often are these patched?” When?” Because the answers to these questions are a major component of your baseline! How do you know when you are done baselining? When you feel you understand the technology, you're probably done. Step three Now you're ready to rock and roll! Armed with the knowledge of attacker TTPs and a baseline understanding of your systems, the hunt begins! Since I don’t know what technology or security solutions you have in your environment I will try to stay general and give broad advice here. Just know, if you have a SIEM, SOAR, EDR, XDR, blah blah blah consider those tools as fair game, they are in play! Just don’t rely on those tools 100% - they are only as effective as the humans who designed them and they don’t know your environment as you do! Also, don’t make the assumption that A)the logs are getting created as you think, confirm that they and B) don’t assume that your security tooling is picking up and shipping those logs for your analysis. Get on these systems and poke around or employ some scripting skills of your own to remotely gather this data. Tip If you're still having a hard time getting started, take a look at a recent report on attacker behaviors. was released recently, and while it’s filled with all sorts of wonderful info I won’t cover all of it in this video. Let’s just zoom in on one of the key takeaways from the report. Valid accounts & command and scripting interpreters are hot right now. Knowing this, you can start searching your logs for things like Powershell running at odd hours or from users that don’t line up with your baseline. Crowdstrike’s Overwatch report Wrap up You now know the three simple steps you can take to begin threat hunting today. 1 They are learning about the TTP you might expect an attacker to use, 2 establishing a baseline of normal so you can spot the weird stuff more easily and 3 hands-on explorations of server & desktop telemetry, security tooling, and other data sources looking for that TTP. Remember, if you are stuck and don’t feel like you know what to look for take a look at a report like the Crowdstrike Overwatch or the Verizon Databreach report.

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