The Sacred Beetle and Others 



with the game that forms the food of their 

 grubs. 



Well, this enormous labour, which is one 

 of building and provisioning combined, this 

 toil, in which the insect's whole life is spent, 

 is done by the mother alone. It wears her 

 out, it utterly exhausts her. The father, 

 drunk with sunlight, stands by the edge of 

 the workyard watching his plucky helpmate 

 at her job and considers himself to have done 

 all the work that he is called upon to do when 

 he has toyed a little with his fair neighbours. 



Why does he not lend the mother a helping 

 hand? It is now or never. Why does he 

 not follow the example of the Swallow 

 couple, both of whom bring their bit of straw, 

 their blob of mortar to the building, their 

 Midge to the brood? He does nothing of 

 the kind, perhaps alleging his comparative 

 weakness as an excuse. It is a poor argu- 

 ment, for to cut a disk out of a leaf, to scrape 

 some cotton from a downy plant, to collect 

 a httle bit of cement in muddy places would 

 not overtax his strength. He could very 

 easily help, at any rate as a labourer; he is 

 quite fit to gather the materials for the 

 mother, with her greater intelligence, to fix 

 in place. The real reason of his inactivity 

 is sheer ineptitude. 



338 



