The Lunary Copris 



collection, I am greatly surprised at the sight 

 that now meets my eyes. In a single cell, 

 I count seven or eight ovoids, standing one 

 against the other and hfting up their nippled 

 tops, each with its hatching-chamber. Not- 

 withstanding Its size, the hall is cram-full; 

 there is hardly room left for the two guard- 

 ians to move about. It may be compared 

 with a bird's nest containing its eggs and no 

 empty spaces. 



The comparison is Inevitable. What In- 

 deed are the Copris' pills but eggs of another 

 sort, in which the nutritive mass of the white 

 and the yollc is replaced by a pot of preserved 

 foodstuffs ? Here the Dung-beetles rival the 

 birds and even surpass them. Instead of 

 producing from within themselves, merely 

 by the mysterious processes of nature, that 

 which will provide for the later growth 

 of their young, they are actively and 

 openly industrious and by dint of their 

 own skill provide food for their grubs, 

 which will achieve the adult form with- 

 out other assistance. They know nothing 

 of the long and tortuous process of In- 

 cubation; the sun Is their incubator. They 

 have not the continual worry of providing 

 food, for they prepare this in advance and 

 make only one distribution. But they never 



359 



