THE ONTHOPHAGI 85 



intervals, and the hatching is pretty slow : time would 

 fail, had the family to be brought up in the manner 

 of the Pigeons. Another method is perforce needed. 

 The childish pap is disgorged all over the walls of the 

 cabin in such a way that the nursling finds itself sur- 

 rounded by an abundance of bread-and-jam, in which 

 the bread, the food of the sturdy age, is represented by 

 the uncooked material, as supplied by the sheep, whereas 

 the jam, the mess of the puny age, is represented by 

 the same material daintily prepared beforehand in the 

 mother's stomach. We shall see the babe presently lick 

 first the jam, all around it, and then stoutly attack the 

 bread . A child among ourselves would behave no otherwise . 



I should have liked to catch the mother in the act of 

 disgorging and spreading her broth. I was not able to 

 succeed. Things happen in a narrow retreat, which the 

 eye cannot enter when the pastry-cook is busy ; and also 

 her fluster at being exhibited in broad daylight at once 

 stops the work. 



If direct observation be lacking, at least the appearance 

 of the material speaks very clearly and tells us that the 

 Onthophagus, here rivalling the Pigeon, but with a 

 different method, disgorges the first mouthfuls for her 

 sons. And the same may be said of the other Dung- 

 beetles skilled in the art of building a hatching-chamber 

 in the centre of the provisions. 



No elsewhere, in the insect order, except among the 

 Apidae, who prepare disgorged food in the shape of 

 honey, is this affection present. The Dung- workers edify 

 us with their morals. Several of them practise association 

 in couples and found a household ; several anticipate the 

 suckling, the supreme expression of maternal solicitude, 

 by turning their crop into a nipple. Life has its freaks. 



