THE ONTHOPHAGI 81 



Taurus, clad in raven black. He wears a pair of long 

 horns, gracefully curved and branching to either side. 

 No pedigree bull, in the Swiss meadows, can match them 

 for curve or elegance. 



The Onthophagus is a very indifferent artist : his nest 

 is a rudimentary piece of work, hardly fit to be acknow- 

 ledged. I obtain it hi profusion from the six species which 

 I have brought up in my jars and flower-pots. Ontho- 

 phagus Taurus alone provides me with nearly a hundred ; 

 and I find no two precisely alike, as pieces should be that 

 come from the same mould and the same laboratory. 



To this lack of exact similarity, we must add inaccuracy 

 of shape, now more, now less accentuated. It is easy, 

 however, to recognize among the bulk the prototype 

 from which the clumsy nest-builder works. It is a sack 

 shaped like a thimble and standing erect, with the spherical 

 thimble-end at the bottom and the circular opening at 

 the top. 



Sometimes, the insect establishes itself in the central 

 region of my apparatus, in the heart of the earthy mass ; 

 then, the resistance being the same in every direction, 

 the sack-like shape is pretty accurate. But, generally, 

 the Onthophagus prefers a solid basis to a dusty support 

 and builds against the walls of the jar, especially against 

 the bottom wall. When the support is vertical, the sack 

 is a short cylinder divided lengthwise, with a smooth, 

 flat surface against the glass and a rugged convexity 

 every elsewhere. If the support be horizontal, as is 

 most frequently the case, the cabin is a sort of undefined 

 oval pastille, flat at the bottom, bulging and vaulted 

 at the top. To the general inaccuracy of these con- 

 torted shapes, ruled by no very definite pattern, we must 

 add the coarseness of the surfaces, all of which, with the 



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