6 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



play with his elbows, that is to say, he flings his toothed 

 legs to right and left and clears a semi-circular space with 

 a vigorous thrust of the rake. Room once made, a 

 different kind of work is found for these same limbs : they 

 collect armfuls of the material raked together by the 

 shield and push it under the insect's belly, between the 

 four hind-legs. These are shaped for the turner's trade. 

 The legs, especially the last two, are long and slender, 

 slightly bowed and ending in a very sharp claw. One 

 has but to look at them to recognize a pair of spherical 

 compasses capable of embracing a globular body in their 

 curved branches and improving its form. In fact, their 

 mission is to shape the ball. 



Armful by armful, the material is heaped up under the 

 belly, between the four legs, which, by a slight pressure, 

 impart their own curve to it and give it a first fashion. 

 Then, betweenwhiles, the rough-hewn pill is set spinning 

 betwixt the four branches of the two spherical com- 

 passes ; it turns under the Dung-beetle's belly until 

 it is rolled into a perfect ball. Should the surface layer 

 lack plasticity and threaten to peel oil, should some too- 

 stringy part refuse to yield to the action of the wheel, 

 the fore-legs correct the faulty places ; their broad beaters 

 pat the ball to give consistency to the new layer and to 

 imbed the recalcitrant scraps into the mass. 



Under a hot sun, when the work is urgent, one stands 

 amazed at the turner's feverish activity. And thus the 

 business proceeds apace : what was but lately a scanty 

 pellet is now a ball the size of a walnut ; soon it will be 

 a ball the size of an apple. I have seen greedy-guts 

 manufacture a ball the size of one's fist. Here, of a cer- 

 tainty, is food in the larder for days to come ! 



The provisions are made. The next thing is to withdraw 



