More Beetles 



Beetles, just after the Geotrupes.^ Its 

 mean and earthy attire denotes a digger. 

 But what precisely is its calling? Like 

 many others, I did not know, when an ac- 

 cidental discovery enlightened me and taught 

 me that the beaded insect deserves some- 

 thing better than a mere compartment in 

 the collector's necropolis. 



February was drawing to a close. The 

 weather w^as mild and the sun warm. We 

 had gone off in a family party, with the 

 children's lunch, an apple and a chunk of 

 bread, in the basket, to see the almond trees 

 in bloom. When lunch-time came, we were 

 resting under some great oaks, when Anna, 

 the youngest of the household, always on 

 the watch for "beasties" with her six-year- 

 old eyes, called to me from a distance of a 

 few yards : 



"A beastie !" she cried. "Two, three, 

 four of them! And such pretty ones! 

 Come and look, papa, come and look!" 



I ran up to her. The child had dug into 

 the sand, to no great depth, with a bit of 

 stick, and was breaking up a sort of rag of 



1 Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, 

 translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, xii. 

 to xiv. — Translator's Note. 



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