The Sacred Beetle: the Pear 



day, taught by my experience in the fields, I 

 go to the Sheep for my supplies and all is 

 well in the cages. Does this mean that the 

 insect never employs for its breeding-pears 

 materials derived from the Horse, even if 

 selected from the finest strata and carefully 

 cleansed from objectionable matter? If the 

 best cannot be obtained, is the middling 

 refused? I prefer to be cautious and give 

 no opinion. What I can declare is that I 

 inspected over a hundred burrows with a 

 view to writing this story and that in every 

 case, from first to last, the larva's provisions 

 had been obtained from the Sheep. 



Where is the egg in that nutritive mass 

 so novel in shape? One would be inclined 

 to place it in the centre of the fat, round 

 paunch. This central point is best-protected 

 against accidents from the outside, best-off 

 in the matter of temperature. Besides, the 

 nascent grub would here find a deep layer 

 of food on every side of It and would not be 

 liable to make mistakes in the first mouthfuls. 

 Everything being of the same kind all round 

 it, there w^ould be no necessity for it to pick 

 and choose ; wherever it chanced to apply its 

 prentice tooth, it could continue without 

 hesitation its first dalnt}'- repast. 



All this seemed so very reasonable that 



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