62 EYE SPY 



beneath the ball, which she pulls downward with 

 her pair of middle feet, while at the same time, 

 with hind legs and powerful digging front legs, 

 she pushes outward and upward the loose earth 

 which she has accumulated. Visibly the ball 

 sinks into the cavity moment by moment as the 

 earth is lowered for a space of half an inch in the 

 surrounding soil, and continually forced upward 

 outside of its circumference. In a few moments 

 the pellet has sunk level with the ground, and in 

 a few moments more the loose earth pushed up- 

 ward has overtopped it and it is out of sight. 

 Still, for hours this busy excavator continues to 

 dig her hole and pull the ball in after her, with 

 shovel head and mole-like digging feet scooping 

 out a circular well much larger than the diameter 

 of the ball, which slowly sinks by its own weight, 

 aided by her occasional downward pull, as this 

 same loosened earth is pushed upward above it. 

 The burrow is thus sunk several inches, when the 

 beetle ploughs her way to the surface and is 

 ready for another similar experience. 



The remaining history of the ball and its 

 change is soon told. The egg within it soon 

 hatches, the larva finding just a sufficiency of 

 food to carry it to its full growth, when it trans- 

 forms to a chrysalis, and at length to the tumble- 

 bug like its parent. The formerly loose earth 

 above him is now firmly packed, but he seems to 



