The Spanish Copris: the Eggs 



that she is exercising the sense of touch. 

 What delicacy of touch can there be under 

 a coat of horn? Besides, the most exquisite 

 sensitiveness would be required. Even if we 

 admit that the Insect's feet, particularly the 

 tarsi, or the palpi, or the antennae, or any- 

 thing you please, possess a certain faculty 

 for distinguishing between hard and soft, 

 rough and smooth, round and angular, still 

 our experiment with the Sacred Beetle's 

 sphere warns us to look where we are going. 

 There surely we had the exact equivalent of 

 the Copris' sphere — made of the same 

 materials, kneaded to the same consistency, 

 given the same outline — and yet the Copris 

 makes no mistake. 



To drag the sense of taste into the problem 

 would be absurd. There remains that of 

 hearing. Later on, I might not deny the 

 possibility of this having something to do 

 with It. When the larva is hatched, the 

 mother, ever-attentive, might conceivably 

 hear it nibbling the wall of the cell, but for 

 the present the chamber contains merely an 

 egg; and an egg is alway silent. 



Then what other means does the mother 

 possess, I will not say of thwarting my 

 machinations — the problem Is on a loftier 

 plane and animals are not endowed with 



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