MR. AND MRS. TUMBLE-BUG 55 
But aside from his historical fame, he will well 
repay our careful study, and serve to while away a 
pleasant hour in the observance of his queer hab- 
its. He is now no longer the awe - inspiring 
sacred scarab, but Mr. Tumble-bug, or, rather, " Mr. 
and Mrs. Tumble-bug," for a tumble-bug always 
pictured in the ancient hieroglyph is rarely to be 
seen in its natural haunts. Mr. and Mrs. Tum- 
ble-bug are devoted and inseparable, and, as a rule, 
vie with each other in the solicitude for that pre- 
cious rolling ball with which the insects are al- 
ways associated. From June to autumn we may 
find our tumble - bugs. There are a number of 
species included in the group of Scarabaeus to 
which they belong. Two species are particularly 
familiar, one of a lustrous bronzy hue, with a very 
rounded back, usually found at work on the coun- 
try highway in the track of the horse, and the 
other, the true typical tumble -bug, a flat -backed, 
jet-black lustrous species which we naturally as- 
sociate with the barn-yard and cow-pasture. The 
latter may be taken as an illustrative example of 
his class, and his ways are identical with those of 
his ancient sacred congener and present inhabi- 
tant of Egypt. 
When we first see them they are generally ma- 
nipulating the ball a small mass of manure in 
which an egg has been laid, and which by rolling 
in the dust has now become round and firmly in- 
