More Beetles 



These to the Minotaur represent victuals 

 of inferior quality, utilized, in the absence of 

 anything better, for his own nourishment, but 

 not served to his family. He prefers those 

 supplied by the flock. Were it a matter 

 of naming him according to his tastes, we 

 should have to call him the assiduous col- 

 lector of Sheep-droppings. This pastoral 

 predilection did not escape the old observers, 

 one of whom speaks of him as the Sheep Sca- 

 rab, Scarabaus ovinus. 



The burrows, which may be recognized by 

 the little mound that surmounts them first 

 become numerous in autumn, when the rains 

 have at last come to moisten the soil parched 

 by the scorching heat of summer. Then 

 the young of this year emerge slowly from 

 underground and for the first time come out 

 to enjoy the light; then, for a few weeks, 

 they feast in temporary marquees; and next 

 they begin to hoard with a view to the 

 winter. 



Let us inspect the dwelling: an easy task, 

 for which a simple pocket-trowel will suffice. 

 The mansion occupied in the late autumn is 

 a shaft as wide as a man's finger and about 

 nine inches deep. There is no special cham- 

 ber, but a sunk pit, as perpendicular as the 

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