101 



Aromia moschata. 



CHAPTER VI. 



COLEOPTERA {continued). 



If the reader has been flattering himself during the 

 little pause we made at the conclusion of the last 

 chapter, that he has finally taken leave of what that 

 most poetical of entomologists, M. Mulsant of Lyons, 

 elegantly denominates "vegetable matter which has 

 been animalized by passing through the digestive 

 tube of certain mammalia/^ I am sorry to say that he 

 is most grievously mistaken. Considerable quantities 

 of these and similar abominations still lie in our path, 

 and we must get over them as best we can, happy 

 if, more fortunate than that veracious traveller, Gul- 

 liver, we contrive to avoid contaminating our own 

 purity by a too intimate contact with them. The 

 reader may, however, comfort himself with the re- 



