The Dung-Beetles of the Pampas 



If cruising among the nooks and corners 

 of the garden do not suffice, a longer voyage 

 shows ample profit. I double the cape of 

 the neighbouring hedges and, at a few hun- 

 dred yards, enter into relations with the 

 Sacred Beetle, 1 the Capricorn, the Geotru- 

 pes, 2 the Copris, 3 the Decticus, 4 the Cricket, 5 

 the Green Grasshopper, 6 in short, with a host 

 of tribes the telling of whose story would ex- 

 haust a lifetime. Certainly, I have enough 

 and even too much to do with my near neigh- 

 bours, without leaving home to rove in distant 

 lands. 



Besides, roaming the world, scattering 

 one's attention over a host of subjects, is not 

 observing. The travelling entomologist can 

 stick numerous species, the joy of the collector 

 and the nomenclator, into his boxes; but to 

 gather circumstantial evidence is a very dif- 

 ferent matter. A Wandering Jew of science, 

 he has no time to stop. Where a prolonged 

 stay would be necessary to study this or that 



1 Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, 

 translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps i. to 

 vi. — Translator's Note. 



2 Cf . idem : chaps, xii. to xiv. — Translator's Note. 

 8 Cf . idem: chaps, ix and xvi. — Translator's Note. 



* Cf . The Life of the Grasshopper: chaps, xi to xiii. — 

 Translator's Note. 



5 Cf. idem: chaps, xv and xvi. — Translator's Note. 



6 Cf . idem: chap. xiv. — Translator's Note. 



237 



