THE SPANISH COPRIS 69 



on them. I repeatedly surprise the baker on the top 

 of the colossal loaf beside which the Sacred Beetle's pill 

 cuts so poor a figure : she goes strolling about on the 

 convex surface, which sometimes measures a decimetre^ 

 across ; she pats the mass, consolidates it, levels it. I 

 can give but a glance at the curious scene. As soon as 

 she is perceived, the pastry-cook slides down the curved 

 slope and huddles out of sight beneath the pie. 



To follow the work further, to study its close detail, 

 we must resort to artifice. The difficulty is almost nil. 

 Either my long practice with the Sacred Beetle has made 

 me more skilful in methods of research, or else the Copris 

 is less circumspect and endures more readily the annoy- 

 ance of a long captivity ; for I succeed, without the 

 least impediment, in following all the phases of the nest- 

 making at my heart's ease. 



I employ two methods, each fitted to instruct me as 

 to certam particulars. Whenever the voleries supply 

 me with a few large cakes, I move these, with the 

 mother, and place them in my study. The receptacles 

 are of two sorts, according to whether I want light or 

 darkness. For light, I employ glass jars with a diameter 

 more or less the same as that of the burrows, say about 

 a dozen centimetres.^ At the bottom of each is a thin 

 layer of fresh sand, quite insufficient to allow the Copris 

 to bury herself in it, but convenient, nevertheless, to 

 save the insect from the slippery footing provided by 

 the glass and to give it the illusion of a soil similar to 

 that of which I have deprived it. On this layer the 

 jar receives the mother and her loaf. 



I need hardly say that the startled insect would not 



^ 3"93 inches. — Translator's Note. 



2 Four to five inches. — Translator's Note. 



