CHAPTER XIII 



THE SISYPHUS 



YOU are not tired, I hope, of hearing about the 

 Scavenger Beetles with a talent for making 

 balls. I have told you of the Sacred Beetle 

 and of the Spanish Copris, and now I wish to say a few 

 words of yet another of these creatures. In the insect 

 world we meet with a great many model mothers : it is 

 only fair, for once to draw attention to a good father. 



Now a good father is rarely seen except among the 

 higher animals. The bird is excellent in this respect, 

 and the furred folk perform their duties honourably. 

 Lower in the scale of living creatures the father is 

 generally indifferent to his family. Very few insects 

 are exceptions to this rule. This heartlessness, which 

 would be detestable in the higher ranks of the animal 

 kingdom, where the weakness of the young demands pro- 

 longed care, is excusable among insect fathers. For the 

 robustness of the new-born insect enables it to gather 

 its food unaided, provided it be in a suitable place. 

 When all that the Pieris need do for the safety of the 

 race is to lay her eggs on the leaves of a cabbage, of what 

 use would a father's care be? The mother's botanical 



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