The Sacred Beetle and Others 



three, sometimes only one. In that of the 

 Lunary Copris, where the two sexes cohabit 

 and help each other, we count as many as 

 eight, twice the largest population of the 

 other. The hard-working father enjoys a 

 magnificent proof of his influence upon the 

 fate of the household. 



Apart from' labour in common, this 

 prosperity demands another condition with- 

 out which the zeal of the couple would be 

 ineffectual. Before everything, if you want 

 a big family you must have enough to feed 

 it on. Remember the victualling-methods 

 of the Copris-tribe generally. They do not, 

 like the pill-rollers, go gathering here and 

 there a booty which is rounded into a ball and 

 subsequently rolled to the burrow; they settle 

 immediately underneath the heap which they 

 find and there, without leaving the threshold 

 of the house, carve themselves slices which 

 they carry down singly to their store until 

 they have collected enough. 



The Spanish Copris, at least in my neigh- 

 bourhood, handles the product of the Sheep. 

 It is of high quality, but not plentiful, even 

 when the purveyor's intestines are in their 

 most generous mood. The whole of it, 

 therefore, is stuffed away in the cavern and 

 the insect does not come out again, being 



362 



