A RARE PICTOGRAPH 



pictograph has been praised by no less of an 

 authority than John Burroughs, who wrote : 

 "It is the most astonishing etching done by 

 an insect that I have ever seen. No barbarian 

 warrior ever decorated his war club with 

 anything like such delicacy and beauty." 



There are those one must admit in pass- 

 ing who will consider these wonderful 

 traceries merely as utilitarian tracks of 

 beetles in quest of incubators and food. But 

 careful scrutiny of these photographs by the 

 inward eye yields several richer interpreta- 

 tions, and, withal, more logical. Would a 

 man, even a literary man, who was eating 

 an apple, etch it all over, in the process, with 

 beautiful designs? 



Let the records of common experience an- 

 swer the question. 



We are therefore forced to the conclusion 

 that this pictograph is the work of highly 

 intelligent and evolved beetles, to whom 

 food and lodgings were but means to higher 

 ends. They did not etch to eat, but ate to 

 etch again another day, using the only 

 medium available to them to express their 



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