AMERICAN EDITOR. 321 



Tho clock, or dorr, " is broad, short, and clumsy " 

 " black in the upper parts, but with wing-cases tipped 

 with violet, while the legs and under surface are steely 

 blue, glossed with green and purple." 



I " To look at the unsullied polish of his mail, one might 

 suppose him risen, like the green gold-chafer, from a bed 

 of roses ; whereas, being a true Scarabseus in nature, if 

 not in name, there is little doubt, when we see him in his 

 waving flight, of his having left recently a bed of a very 

 opposite description a bed in short of dung wherein 

 through the live-long day he has been reposing, or 

 whereat, like his Egyptian prototype, he has been hard 

 at work, helping, perhaps, his partner to roll masses for 

 the enclosure of her eggs, or to bore holes for their 

 reception." Ackcta Domeslica. 



The dorr is one of those creatures which seek safety in 

 feigning death ; when touched, it immediately drops to 

 the earth, stiff and apparently lifeless, suffering itself to 

 be handled without the least sign of animation ; but when 

 left to itself, it will in a moment resume its faculties, and 

 take flight again. 



It is possible that some American reader, familiar with 

 the epithet " shard-borne beetle," may not be aware that 

 the word shard signifies a fragment of pottery, this insect 

 being often found among rubbish of that kind, or about 

 loose stones. 



Such is the dorr, which, in the summer evenings of 

 England, " wheels his droning flight." 



