222 THE WORLD'S LUMBER ROOM. 



they use in flying need packing and arranging before 

 they can be tucked away underneath. This they do 

 with the tip of their tails, and hence are obliged to turn 

 them up over their backs ; but the movement seems also 

 to be made in self-defence, possibly with an idea of in- 

 spiring terror. And the Devil's Coach-horse, one of the 

 largest and commonest species, more than an inch long, 

 certainly is a repulsive and ferocious-looking insect. (Fig. 45.) 



Most of the little black "flies," which annoy us by 

 getting into our eyes, are really minute Cock-tails, some 

 no thicker than a horse-hair ; and much of the irritation 

 they cause is due to this habit of turning up their tails 

 the instant they alight. 



There are about a thousand species of Cock-tails, and 

 all are extremely voracious, and all, more or less, 

 scavengers. One, called the " fish-fly," is most unplea- 

 santly abundant on the shores of Newfoundland, where 

 it feeds on the dead and dying cod; but they do not 

 confine themselves entirely to carrion, and some of them 

 are extremely ferocious, not only hunting their prey, but 

 attacking and devouring their own kind. Many, especially 

 the Coach-horse, are inveterate insect-feeders, and as such 

 ought to be looked upon with favour by the gardener. 



Dung-beetles, of which there are many hundred species, 

 are especially numerous in the tropics, where animal life 

 is most abundant; and first among them is the great scara- 

 baeus tribe, species of which are found in all the warm parts 

 of the world. The sacred Scarabseus of Egypt (Fig. 46), 

 which is hornless, is common in the south of Europe, 

 and throughout Africa. It has a very odd appearance 



