242 SACRED BEETLE. 



The Ateuchus jffigyptiorum, the Beetle held sacred, and 

 so often seen depicted in the hieroglyphics, and carved 

 on the monuments, of the ancient Egyptians, has the 

 same habit of enclosing its eggs in large round masses 

 of excrement, and rolling them along with its hinder legs 

 for the purpose of burying them in the ground. 



The Cape, although very well explored by travellers, yet 

 appeared to me to offer fine opportunities to the Entomo- 

 logist, so great seemed the variety of insect-forms every- 

 where encountered. The large white spathas of the Arum, 

 which grows abundantly in the vicinity of Simon's Town, 

 usually have specimens of Anisonyx, and other Glaphy- 

 ridce, feeding on the spadix, and assisting the process of 

 impregnation by throwing about the pollen as they move 

 their bodies, which, for this purpose, are covered with 

 long hairs. Feeding on the Protect argentea, or Wittle- 

 broom, the splendid plant which is commonly used as 

 fire-wood at the Cape, I have found species of Hopliae, 

 Dic/ieli, and other Melolonthida, which apparently seem 

 to perform the same kind office of disseminating the 

 pollen from flower to flower. Smaller species are found 

 imbedded, by dozens, in the heads of the composite 

 flowers, in company with a single Cetonia pubescens. 



On the 6th of May we left Simon's Town for Singa- 

 pore, and after a somewhat tempestuous passage across 

 the Indian Ocean, arrived at Welcome Bay, in the Straits 

 of Sunda, on the 10th of June. There are certain 

 phenomena to be observed, and animals to be studied, 

 however, even when traversing the high seas, with no 

 land in sight. As, for example, when the wide ocean 

 heaves languidly in its mighty bed, and, lost in gorgeous 



