62 EYE SPY 
beneath the ball, which she pulls downward with 
her pair of middle feet, while at the same time, 
with hind legs and powerful digging front legs, 
she pushes outward and upward the loose earth 
which she has accumulated. Visibly the ball 
sinks into the cavity moment by moment as the 
earth is lowered for a space of half an inch in the 
surrounding soil, and continually forced upward 
outside of its circumference. In a few moments 
the pellet has sunk level with the ground, and in 
a few moments more the loose earth pushed up- 
ward has overtopped it and it is out of sight 
Still, for hours this busy excavator continues to 
dig her hole and pull the ball in after her, with 
shovel head and mole-like digging feet scooping 
out a circular well much larger than the diameter 
of the ball, which slowly sinks by its own weight, 
aided by her occasional downward pull, as this 
same loosened earth is pushed upward above it. 
The burrow is thus sunk several inches, when the 
beetle ploughs her way to the surface and is 
ready for another similar experience. 
The remaining history of the ball and its 
change is soon told. The egg within it soon 
hatches, the larva finding just a sufHciency of 
food to carry it to its full growth, when it trans- 
forms to a chrysalis, and at length to the tumble- 
bug like its parent. The formerly loose earth 
above him is now firmly packed, but he seems to 
