The Family 12.^ 



her ovaries or elsewhence. There is no question 

 here of real maternal affection. 



I have described elsewhere the prowess of 

 the Copris ^ watching over cells that are not 

 her handiwork and do not contain her offspring. 

 With a zeal which even the additional labour 

 laid upon her does not easily weary, she removes 

 the mildew from the alien dung-balls, which far 

 exceed the regular nests in number ; she gently 

 scrapes and polishes and repairs them ; she 

 listens to them attentively and enquires by ear 

 into each nursling's progress. Her real col- 

 lection could not receive greater care. Her 

 own family or another's : it is all one to her. 



The Lycosa is equally indifferent. I take a 

 hair-pencil and sweep the living burden from 

 one of my Spiders, making it fall close to 

 another covered with her little ones. The 

 evicted youngsters scamper about, find the new 

 mother's legs outspread, nimbly clamber up 

 these and mount on the back of the obliging 

 creature, who quietly lets them have their way. 



' A species of Dung-beetle. Cf. The Life and Love of the Insect^ 

 by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos : 

 chap. V. — Translator's Note. 



