The Sacred Beetle and Others 



I was convinced, I should need to be shown 

 a Dung-beetle who was utterly unfamiliar 

 with the pill-making business in every-day life 

 and who yet, when laying-time was at hand, 

 made an abrupt change in her habits and 

 shaped her provisions into a ball. My 

 Dung-beetle would have to be a good fat 

 one too. Is there any such In my neighbour- 

 hood? Yes, there is; and she is one of the 

 handsomest and largest, next to the Sacred 

 Beetle. I speak of the Spanish Copris (C 

 hispanus, LiN.), who is so remarkable on ac- 

 count of the sharp slope of her corselet and 

 the disproportionate size of the horn sur- 

 mounting her head. 



Round and squat, the Spanish Copris with 

 her ponderous gait Is certainly a stranger to 

 gymnastics such as are performed by the 

 Sacred Beetle or the Gymnopleurus. Her 

 legs, which are of insignificant length and 

 folded under her belly at the slightest alarm, 

 bear no comparison with the stilts of the 

 pill-rollers. Their stunted form and lack 

 of flexibility are enough in themselves to tell 

 us that their owner would not care to wander 

 about hampered by a rolling ball. 



The Copris Is Indeed of a sedentary habit. 

 Once he has found his provisions, at night or 

 In the evening twilight, he digs a burrow 

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