The Sacred Beetle and Others 



of space around them and on a clean support, 

 pills which are perfect ovoids, free from 

 earthy stains. In the top of two of them 

 1 make an opening which the grub, faithful 

 to its methods, at once strives to stop up, 

 but without success. One, stored away 

 under a bell-glass, will serve me as a witness. 

 The other I place in a jar where the mother 

 is watching her cradles, two splendid ovoids. 



I have not long to wait. An hour later, 

 I raise the cardboard screen. The Copris 

 is on the strange pill and so busily engaged 

 that she pays no attention to the daylight 

 admitted. In other, less urgent circum- 

 stances, she would at once have slipped 

 down and taken shelter from the trouble- 

 some light; this time, she does not move and 

 imperturbably continues her work. Before 

 my eyes she rakes away the red crust and 

 uses the scrapings from the cleansed surface 

 to spread over and solder the breach. It is 

 hermetically sealed In a very short space of 

 time. I stand amazed at the insect's skill. 



Well, while the Copris is restoring a pill 

 that does not belong to her, what is the grub 

 that owns the other doing in the bell-glass? 

 It continues to kick about hopelessly, vainly 

 lavishing cement that is incapable of setting. 

 Put to the test in the morning, it does not 

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