The Dung-Beetles of the Pampas 



sets off this splendid jewellery by studding 

 his corselet with great spots of glowing 

 black. 



What trade do you follow under your tor- 

 rid sun, O gleaming carbuncle? Have you 

 the bucolic tastes of your rival in finery, the 

 Splendid Phanaeus? Can you be a knacker, 

 a worker in putrid sausage-meat, like 

 Phanaus Milonf Vainly do I consider you 

 and marvel at you : your equipment tells me 

 nothing. No one who has not seen you at 

 work is capable of naming your profession. 

 I leave the matter to the conscientious mas- 

 ters, to the experts who are able to say : I do 

 not know. They are scarce, in our days; 

 but after all there are some, less eager than 

 others in the unscrupulous struggle which 

 creates upstarts. 



This excursion to the pampas leans to one 

 conclusion of some importance. We find in 

 another hemisphere, with reversed seasons, 

 a different climate and dissimilar biological 

 conditions, a series of true dung-workers 

 whose habits and industry repeat, in their 

 essential facts, the habits and industry of our 

 own. Prolonged investigations, made at 

 first hand and not, like mine, at second hand, 

 would add greatly to the list of similar work- 

 ers. 



265 



