THE SACRED BEETLE 3 



to us, by comparison, of but little interest. These others 

 form almost the entirety ; at least, to my knowledge, 

 among the fauna of our country-sides, there is only one 

 other instance of insects preparing board and lodging for 

 their family, as do the gatherers of honey and the buriers 

 of baskets full of game. 



And, strange to say, those insects vying in maternal 

 tenderness with the flower-despoiling tribe of Bees are 

 none other than the Dung-beetles, the dealers in ordure, 

 the scavengers of the meadows contaminated by the herd. 

 We must pass from the scented corollas of the flower-bed 

 to the droppings left on the high-road by the mule to find 

 a second example of devoted mothers and lofty instincts. 

 Nature abounds in these antitheses. What are our 

 ugliness and beauty, our cleanliness and dirt to her ? 

 With refuse, she creates the flower ; from a little manure, 

 she extracts the blessed grain of the wheat. 



Notwithstanding their filthy trade, the Dung-beetles 

 occupy a very respectable rank. Thanks to their usually 

 imposing size ; to their severe and irreproachably glossy 

 garb ; to their short, stout, thickset shape ; to the quaint 

 ornamentation either of their brow or, also, of their 

 thorax, they cut an excellent figure in the collector's 

 boxes, especially when to our own species, oftenest of an 

 ebon black, we add a few tropical species flashing with 

 gleams of gold and ruddy copper. 



They are the sedulous guests of our herds, for which 

 reason several of them emit a mild flavour of benzoic 

 acid, the aromatic of the sheepfolds. Their pastoral 

 habits have impressed the nomenclators, who, too often, 

 alas, careless of euphony, have changed their note this 

 time and headed tkeir descriptions with such names as 

 MeUbseus, Tityrus, Amyntas, Corydon, Mopsus and Alexis. 



