THE CLOCK BEETLE. 317 



for what purpose? Not to diffuse, but to bury them, even as 

 ihe beetle, in the earth of their sordid selfishness. 



Verily, shade of Sir Thomas Gresham, thou princely mer- 

 chant ! save but for respect for thee, and for the remnant of 

 nobler traders which, with the baser sort, are now wont to 

 assemble in the modern halls surmounted by thy ancient grass- 

 hopper, we would even tear down that classic, youthful, rural, 

 mirth-loving insect, and set up, in its stead, a gigantic Scara- 

 baeus, which, stripped of its fabulous, but clothed in all its 

 veracious attributes, would be, of all symbols, most appropriate 

 to surmount a temple of Mammon. 



The sacred beetle of Egypt is not a native of Britain, and 

 only of Europe as naturalized in its southern countries from 

 the neighbouring continent of Africa. 



But though we have not a Scardbceus sacer in the list of 

 our indigenous beetles, we have an insect greatly resembling 

 it in form as well as. habits, which may be met with almost 

 everywhere, and on every day from March to October. This 

 is no other than the " great dor/ 7 or " clock" the " shardborne 

 beetle" of our immortal Bard, that which, on summer and 

 autumn evenings, so often with drowsy hum wheels lumbering 

 past us, or bangs up right against us. 



Like the Scarabaeus, this clock-beetle 1 is, in figure, broad, 

 and short, and clumsy. His forehead has none, indeed, of those 

 sun-like rays, in plainer language, none of those vandyked 

 notches which distinguish that of the Egyptian, but it is 

 adorned, like the latter, with a pair of horns, 2 finished by 

 laminated or leafy tips. Black, in both insects, is the prevail- 

 ing hue, at least on the upper side ; but in our dor, the wing- 

 cases are tinted on their margins with bright violet, while the 

 legs and whole of the under surface are cased in armour of 

 steely blue, glossed with green and purple. The exterior, 

 indeed, of this dweller in defilement is far from unpleasing, 



1 See Vignette ; Clock Beetle, Gcotnipes stercorarius. 2 Antennae. 



