The Sacred Beetle and Others 



comparable artists. The near kinswomen of 

 the Onthophagus excel in making beautiful 

 ovoids and pear-shaped gourds. She her- 

 self, so tiny and so precise, ought to do even 

 better. 



Well, the table deceives us, the formula 

 lies: the Onthophagus is a very indifferent 

 artist; her nest i^ a rudimentary piece of 

 work, hardly fit to be acknowledged. I 

 obtain it in profusion from the six species 

 which I have brought up in my jars and 

 flower-pots. The Bull Onthophagus alone 

 provides me with nearly a hundred; and I 

 find no two precisely alike, as pieces should 

 be that come from the same mould and the 

 same workshop. 



To this lack of exact similarity, we must 

 add inaccuracy of shape, now more, now less 

 accentuated. It is easy, however, to re- 

 cognize among the bulk the pattern upon 

 which the clumsy nest-builder works. It is 

 a sack shaped like a thimble and standing 

 erect, with the spherical thimble-end at the 

 bottom and the circular opening at the top. 



Sometimes, the insect establishes itself in 

 the central region of my apparatus, in the 

 heart of the earthy mass; then, the resist- 

 ance being the same in every direction, the 

 sack-like shape is pretty accurate. But, 



388 



