The Burrow 



shoulder, he puts all Sicily in a flutter: he 

 shakes her with an earthquake. 



It is not unpleasing to find an echo of 

 these old fables in natural history. Mytho- 

 logical names, so resonant and grateful to 

 the ear, do not entail any contradiction with 

 reality, a defect not always avoided by terms 

 entirely built up of data derived from the 

 lexicon. When, moreover, vague analogies 

 connect the fabulous with the historical, 

 then the happiest surnames and forenames 

 are obtained. Minotaurus Typhosus LIN. 

 is an instance in point. It is the name given 

 to a fair-sized black Beetle, closely related 

 to the earth-borers, the Geotrupes.^ This 

 is a peaceable, inoffensive creature, but even 

 better provided with horns than Minos' Bull. 

 None among our armour-loving insects wears 

 so threatening a panoply. The male carries 

 on his corselet a bundle of three sharp spears, 

 parallel and pointed forwards. Imagine 

 him the size of a Bull: Theseus himself, if 

 he met him in the fields, would not dare to 

 face his terrible trident. 



The Typhosus of the legend had the am- 

 bition to sack the home of the gods by stack- 



1 The Beetle under consideration is known to some 

 nomenclators as Geotrupes Typhoeus. — Translator's Note. 

 73 



