FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



utterly unfamiliar with the ball-making business in 

 everyday life, and who yet, when laying-time was at 

 hand, made an abrupt change in her habits and stored 

 her provisions in the form of a round lump. That would 

 show me that it was not merely custom, but care for her 

 grubs, that made her choose the globular shape for her 

 nest. 



Now in my neighbourhood there is a Beetle of this 

 very kind. She is one of the handsomest and largest, 

 though not so imposing as the Sacred Beetle. Her name 

 is the Spanish Copris, and she is remarkable for the sharp 

 slope of her chest and the size of the horn surmounting 

 her head. 



Being round and squat, the Spanish Copris is certainly 

 incapable of such gymnastics as are performed by the 

 Sacred Beetle. Her legs, which are insignificant in 

 length, and which she folds under her body at the 

 slightest alarm, are not in the least like the stilts of the 

 pill-rollers. Their stunted form and their lack of flexi- 

 bility are enough in themselves to tell us that their owner 

 would not care to roam about burdened with a rolling 

 ball. 



The Copris, indeed, is not of an active nature. Once 

 she has found her provisions, at night or in the evening 

 twilight, she begins to dig a burrow on the spot. It is 

 a rough cavern, large enough to hold an apple. Here 



[110] 



