SELF-DENIAL OF THE SPANISH COPRIS 79 



best she can in her short arms, so little adapted, one would 

 think, for work of this kind, the Copris rounds her lump of 

 food by pressure, and pressure only. Solemnly she moves 

 about on the still shapeless mass, climbs up, climbs down, turns 

 to right and left, above and below, touching and re-touching 

 with unvarying patience. Finally, after twenty- four hours of 

 this work, the piece that was all corners has become a perfect 

 sphere, the size of a plum. There in her cramped studio, 

 with scarcely room to move, the podgy artist has completed 

 her work without once shaking it on its base : by dint of time 

 and patience she has obtained the exact sphere which her 

 clumsy tools and her confined space seemed to render impossible. 



For a long time she continues to polish up the globe with 

 affectionate touches of her foot, but at last she is satisfied. 

 She climbs to the top, and by simple pressure hollows out a 

 shallow cavity. In this basin she lays an egg. 



Then, with extreme caution and delicacy, she brings 

 together the sides of the basin so as to cover the egg, and 

 carefully scrapes the sides towards the top, which begins to 

 taper a little and lengthen out. In the end the ball has become 

 ovoid, or egg-shaped. 



The insect next helps herself to a second piece of the cut 

 loaf, which she treats in the same way. The remainder serves 

 for a third ovoid, or even a fourth. The Sacred Beetle, you 

 remember, made a single pear-shaped nest in a way that was 

 familiar to her, and then left her egg underground while she 

 engaged in fresh enterprises. The Copris behaves very differ- 

 ently. 



Her burrow is almost filled by three or four ovoid nests, 

 standing one against the other, with the pointed end upwards. 

 After her long fast one would expect her to go away, like the 

 Sacred Beetle, in search of food. On the contrary, however, 

 she stays where she is. And yet she has eaten nothing since 

 she came underground, for she has taken good care not to 

 touch the food prepared for her family. She will go hungry 

 rather than let her grubs suffer. 



