82 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



crocosm, and presenting to the eye of the beholder 

 no unapt imitation of the unequal surface of the 

 earth, now horrid with mis-shapen rocks, ridges, and 

 precipices, now swelling into hills and mountains, 

 and now sinking into valleys, glens, and caves/'* 

 But the singular appearance of the greater number 

 is produced by the horrid array of horns, spines, 

 and other projections with which they are furnished. 

 Some of these appendages are so remarkable as to 

 be wholly unparalleled in any other department of 

 the animal kingdom, and we are often wholly at a 

 loss to conjecture what purposes they were intended 

 to serve. In some instances (Scarabaus Syphax> 

 and several allied species) three pointed horns, nearly 

 half the length of the body, project forwards from 

 the thorax, one on each side, and the other just over 

 the head. Another species of large size ( Scarabceus 

 Actceori) has a long and powerful horn issuing from 

 its head, curved backwards, and bifid at the point, 

 and having a strong tooth on its upper side towards 

 the base, while two other horns stand out from the tho- 

 rax, one on each side. A middle-sized species, of a 

 uniform reddish -brown colour (Scarabceus claviger), 

 bears on the centre of its thorax a long stout horn, 

 which is dilated in an angular manner at the tip, 

 and curved forwards so as nearly to meet another 

 of a slender subulate form arising from the crown 



* Introduction to Entomology, by the Rev. William 

 Kirby and William Spence, Esq. vol. i. 



