196 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



tharus, and Heliocantharus. " It should seem from 

 the name," say Messrs Kirby and Spence, " derived 

 from a word signifying an ass, that the Grecian 

 beetle made its pills of asses' dung ; and this is con- 

 firmed by a passage in one of the plays of Aristo- 

 phanes, the Irene, where a beetle of this kind is in- 

 troduced, on which one of the characters rides to 

 heaven to petition Jupiter for peace. The play be- 

 gins with one domestic desiring another to feed the 

 cantharus with some bread, who afterwards orders 

 his companion to give him another kind of bread, 

 made of asses' dung."* 



Various insects of similar habits are found in dif- 

 ferent quarters of the world, and they form a fa- 

 vourite subject of observation with travellers. One 

 of these abounds in America, where it is known by 

 the name of the Tumble-Dung Beetle. An inte- 

 resting account of its proceedings is given by a wri- 

 ter on Carolina. " I have attentively admired their in- 

 dustry," he says, " and mutual assisting of each other 

 in rolling their globular balls from the place where 

 they made them to that of their interment, which 

 is usually the distance of some yards, more or less. 

 This they perform breech foremost, by raising their 

 hind parts, and forcing along the ball with their hind 

 feet. Two or three of them are sometimes engaged 

 in trundling one ball, which, from meeting with 

 impediments on account of the unevenness of the 



* Intro, to Eni. vol. 255, note. 



