A BARREN PROMISE 91 



be to make him look grand in the presence of his female, 

 herself deprived of these extravagances ? Perhaps also 

 they are of use to him in certain works, even as the trident 

 helps Minotaurus in crumbling the pellets and carting 

 the rubbish. Implements of which we do not know the 

 use always strike us as singular. Having never associated 

 with the West-Indian Hercules, I must content myself 

 with suspicions touching the purpose of his fearsome 

 equipment. 



Well, one of the subjects in my voleries would achieve 

 a similar savage finery if he persisted hi his attempts. 

 I speak of Onthophagus Vacca. His nymph has on its 

 forehead a thick horn, one only, bent backward ; on its 

 corselet it possesses a like horn, jutting forward. The 

 two, approaching their tips, look like a sort of pincers. 

 What does the insect lack in order to acquire, on a smaller 

 scale, the eccentric ornament of the West-Indian Scarab ? 

 It lacks perseverance. It matures the appendage of the 

 forehead and allows that of the corselet to perish 

 atrophied. It succeeds no better than Onthophagus 

 Taurus in its attempt to grow a pointed stake upon its 

 chine ; it loses a glorious opportunity of making itself fine 

 for the wedding and terrible in battle. 



The others are no more successful. I bring up six 

 different species. All, in the chrysalis state, possess the 

 thoracic horn and the eight-pointed ventral coronet ; not 

 one benefits by these advantages, which disappear alto- 

 gether when the adult splits its case. My near neigh- 

 bourhood numbers a dozen species of Onthophagi ; the 

 world contains some hundreds. All, natives and foreigners, 

 have the same general structure ; all most probably 

 possess the dorsal appendage at an early age ; and none 

 of them, hi spite of the variety of the climate, torrid in 



