382 H/STOHY or 



round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of which they Jay 

 an egg. These pellets, in September, they convey three feet 

 deep in the earth, where they lie till the approach of spring •, 

 when the eggs are hatched the nests burst, and the insects find 

 their way out of the earth. They assist each other with inde- 

 fatigable industry, in rolling these globular pellets to the place 

 where they are to be buried. This they are to perform with 

 the tail foremost, by raising up their hinder part, and shoving 

 along the ball with their hind-feet. They are always accom- 

 panied with other beetles of a larger size, and of a more elegant 

 structure and colour. The breast of this is covered with a 

 shield of a crimson colour, and shining like metal ; the head is 

 of the like colour, mixed with green, and on the crown of the 

 head stands a shining black horn, bended backwards. These are 

 called the kings of the beetles j but for what reason is uncer- 

 tain, since they partake of the same dirty drudgery with the 

 rest. 



The Elephant- Beetle is the largest of this kind hitherto 

 known, and is found in South America, particularly Guiana and 

 Surinam, as well as about the river Oroonoko. It is of a black 

 colour, and the whole body is covered with a very hard shell, 

 full as thick and as strong as that of a small crab. Its length, 

 from the hinder part to the eyes, is almost four inches, and from 

 the same part to the end of the proboscis, or trunk, four inches 

 and three quarters. The transverse diameter of the body is two 

 inches and a quarter, and the breadth of each elytron, or case for 

 the wings, is an inch and three-tenths. The attennae, or feelers, 

 are quite horny ; for which reason the proboscis, or trunk, is 

 moveable at its insertion into the head, and seems to supply the 

 place of feelers. The horns are eight-tenths of an inch long, 

 and terminate in points. The proboscis is an inch and a qiiar- 

 ter long, and turns upwards, making a crooked line, terminating 

 in two horns, each of which is near a quarter of an inch long ; 

 but they are not perforated at the end like the proboscis of 

 other insects. About four-tenths of an inch above the head, on 

 that side next the body, is a prominence or small honi, which, if 

 the rest of the trunk were away, would cause this part to resem- 

 ble the horn of a rhinoceros. There is indeed a beetle so called, 

 but then the horns or trunk has no fork at the end, though tlie 



