THE DOR BEETLE. 175 



hands. Yet this creature has, in all probability, been burrowing 

 deeply into the ground, has been meddling with the most noxious 

 substances, and still retains no trace of its past labors. Save for 

 the round-bodied yellow parasites that cling to its body, and in- 

 sert their beaks between the joints of its armor, it is brilliantly 

 clear. Not a speck of mould remains upon its surface, not a stain 

 defiles its limbs, neither does it retain the least odor which would 

 betray its occupation. Other beetles are not so fortunate. The 

 burying beetles just mentioned are mightily ill-savored insects, 

 and so are many others with similar habits. But the Dor beetle 

 is free from such noisomeness, and both the eye and the nostrils 

 pronounce it pure. 



Let us now watch this beautiful insect, as it wheels through 

 the air. Either by the development of the sense of smell, or by 

 some sixth sense with which humanity is practically unacquaint- 

 ed, the beetle is made aware that the object of its search is at 

 hand. The dull, monotonous buzz is immediately exchanged for 

 a triumphant hum, the circling flight ceases, and the beetle darts 

 through the air, with arrow-like rapidity, to the spot which it 

 seeks. A few more circles, lessening at every round, and down 

 it settles, on an object uninviting to Europeans, but in great favor 

 with Hindoos, Kaffirs, and scarabaei, namely, a patch of cow-dung. 



No sooner has it settled, than it dives downward until it reach- 

 es the earth, and then bores a perpendicular hole, some eight inch- 

 es in depth, and large enough to admit a man's finger. I have 

 often watched the beetles at their work, and seen them thus en- 

 gaged, and have turned many a Dor beetle out of the burrow 

 which it had been so industriously excavating. Having ascend- 

 ed to the surface, it carries a quantity of the cowdung to the bot- 

 tom of the burrow, deposits an egg, and ascends, repeating this 

 process as long as its powers endure. There are several other 

 British beetles which prepare the cradle for tiieir offspring in a 

 similar manner. 



Merely to dig a hole, to place at the bottom of it the food which 

 the young are intended to eat, and to fill it in with earth, is a pro- 

 cess of great simplicity, and makes but few calls on the industry 

 or ingenuity of the laborer. Some allied beetles there are, how- 

 ever, which feed their young on similar substances, and in like 

 manner bury them in the earth, but which exercise extraordinary 

 industry in the performance of the task. All the world has heard 

 of the famous Scarab^eus of the Egyptians {Scarabceus sacer), an 



