The Sense of Smell 



to dig a trench In front of it, which will enable 

 us later to cut away the perpendicular wall, 

 slice by slice, with the blade of a knife. The 

 burrow then appears at full length, from top 

 to bottom, in a semicylindrical shape. 



Often the violated dwelling-house is empty. 

 The insect has left during the night, having 

 finished its business there and gone to settle 

 elsewhere. The Bolboceras is a nomad, a 

 night-walker, who leaves his home without 

 regret and easily acquires a new one. Some- 

 times also the insect is found at the bottom of 

 the pit: at one time a male, at another a fe- 

 male, but never the two at a time. The sexes, 

 both equally zealous in digging burrows, 

 work separately, not together. This is not, 

 in fact, a family residence, containing the 

 nursery of the young; it is a temporary abode, 

 dug by each occupant for his own comfort. 



Sometimes we find nothing there but the 

 well-sinker, surprised during his work of ex- 

 cavation; sometimes, lastly — and the case is 

 not uncommon — ^the hermit of the crypt em- 

 braces with his legs a small hypogean fun- 

 gus, either intact or partly consumed. He 

 clutches it convulsively, refuses to be parted 

 from it. It is his booty, his fortune, his 



3^3 



