The Sacred Beetle and Others 



lustrious master, M. Blanchard, but things 

 certainly do not happen as he says. To 

 begin with, the two accounts are so much alike 

 that they must have had a common origin. 

 Illiger, on the strength of observations not 

 continuous enough to deserve blind confi- 

 dence, put forward the case of his Gymno- 

 pleurus; and the same story was repeated 

 about the Scarabaei because it is, in fact, 

 quite usual to see two of these insects oc- 

 cupied together either in rolling a ball or in 

 getting it out of a troublesome place. But 

 this cooperation in no way proves that the 

 Dung-beetle who found himself in difficulties 

 went to requisition the aid of his mates. 

 I have had no small measure of the patience 

 recommended by M. Blanchard; I have lived 

 laborious days in close intimacy, if I may say 

 so, with the Sacred Beetle ; I have done every- 

 thing that I could think of in order to enter 

 into his ways and habits as thoroughly as 

 possible and to study them from life; and I 

 have never seen anything that suggested 

 either nearly or remotely the idea of com- 

 panions summoned to lend assistance. As I 

 shall presently relate, I have subjected the 

 Dung-beetle to far more serious trials than 

 that of getting his ball into a hole; I have 

 confronted him with much graver difficulties 



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