The Dung-Beetles of the Pampas 



arrival of the present purveyor? The 

 Llama, that denizen of the uplands, was not 

 able to feed the Dung-beetles confined to the 

 plains. In days of old, the foster-father was 

 perhaps the monstrous Megatherium, a 

 dung-factory of incomparable prodigality. 



And from the produce of the colossal 

 beast, whereof naught remains but a few 

 rare skeletons, the modellers passed to the 

 produce of the Sheep and the Ox, without 

 altering their ovoids or their gourds, even as 

 our Sacred Beetle, without ceasing to be 

 faithful to her pear, accepts the Cow's flat 

 cake in the absence of the favourite morsel, 

 the Sheep's bannock. 



In the south as in the north, at the anti- 

 podes as here, every Copris fashions ovoids 

 with the egg at the smaller end; every Sa- 

 cred Beetle models pears or gourds with a 

 hatching-chamber in the neck; but the ma- 

 terials employed vary greatly according to 

 the season and locality and can be furnished 

 by the Megatherium, the Ox, the Horse, the 

 Sheep or by man and several others. 



We must not allow this diversity to lead 

 us to believe in changes of instinct: that 

 would be to strain at a Gnat and swallow a 

 Camel. The industry of the Megachiles, 

 for instance, consists of manufacturing wal- 

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