A BARREN PROMISE 89 



of reddish brown, curved arc-wise. These are real horns 

 taking shape, consistency and colour. The appendage of 

 the corselet and those of the belly, on the other hand, 

 preserve their glassy appearance. They are barren sacks, 

 void of any self -developing germ. The organism pro- 

 duced them in an impetuous moment ; now, scornful, or 

 perhaps powerless, it allows the work to wither and become 

 useless. 



When the nymph sheds its covering and the fine tunic 

 of the adult form is torn, these strange horns crumble into 

 shreds, which fall away with the rest of the cast clothing. 

 In the hope of finding at least a trace of the vanished 

 things, the lens in vain explores the bases but lately 

 occupied. There is nothing appreciable left : smoothness 

 takes the place of protuberance ; nullity succeeds to 

 reality. Of the accessory panoply that promised so 

 much, absolutely naught remains : everything has dis- 

 appeared, evaporated, so to speak. 



Onthophagus Taurus is not the only one endowed with 

 those fleeting appendages, which vanish wholly when the 

 nymph sheds its clothes. The other members of the 

 tribe possess similar horny manifestations on their bellies 

 and corselets. These all disappear entirely in the perfect 

 insect. 



A simple setting forth of the facts does not suffice us : 

 we should like to guess at the motive of this corniculate 

 display. Is it a vague memory of the customs of olden 

 time, when life spent its excess of young sap upon quaint 

 creations, banished to-day from our better-balanced 

 world ? Is the Onthophagus the dwarfed representative 

 of an old race of horned animals now extinct ? Does it 

 give us a faint image of the past ? 



The surmise rests upon no vaUd foundation. The 



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