The Spanish Copris: the Mother 



factory, a prodigiously fertile factory, I ad- 

 mit. She lays eggs; and that is all. The 

 family is brought up by others, real sisters of 

 charity these, vowed to celibacy. 



The Copris mother does more in her 

 humble household. Alone and entirely un- 

 aided, she provides each of her children with 

 a cake whose crust, hardening and constantly 

 renovated with the maternal trowel, becomes 

 an inviolable cradle. So intense Is her af- 

 fection that she neglects herself to the extent 

 of losing all need for food. Down in a bur- 

 row, for four consecutive months, she 

 watches over her brood, attending to the 

 wants of the germ, the grub, the nymph and 

 the perfect insect. She does not return to 

 the glad outer life until all her family are 

 emancipated. Thus do we behold one of the 

 most brilliant manifestations of maternal in- 

 stinct In a humble dung-eater. The Spirit 

 breatheth where he will. 



247 



