The Sacred Beetle and Others 



we should put it into the ground, so far as 

 possible, while fresh. When diluted by the 

 rain and dissipated by the air, it becomes 

 lifeless and devoid of fertilizing elements. 

 This agronomic truth of such high import- 

 ance Is quite familiar to the Geotrupes and 

 his colleagues. In their burying-work, they 

 invariably aim at/ materials of recent date. 

 Just as they are eager to put away the 

 produce of the moment, all saturated with its 

 potassium, its nitrates and its phosphates, 

 even so do they scorn the stuff hardened into 

 brick by the sun or rendered infertile by long 

 exposure to the air. The valueless residue 

 does not interest them; they leave this barren 

 rubbish to others. 



We now know about the Geotrupes as a 

 sanitary expert and as a collector of manure. 

 We are going to see him in a third aspect, 

 that of the sagacious weather-prophet. It 

 is popularly believed, in the country-side, that 

 a swarm of agitated Geotrupes, skimming 

 the ground with an air of great business in 

 the evening, is a sign of fine weather on the 

 morrow. Is this rustic prognostication 

 worth anything? My cages shall tell us. 

 I watch my boarders closely all through the 

 autumn, the period when they build their 

 nests; I note the state of the sky on the day 



286 



