The Sacred Beetle and Others 



intestines give, if necessary, the glue that 

 sticks them together. 



In this way, an attractive house is 

 obtained, ovoid in form, polished as stucco 

 within and adorned on the outside with 

 slightly projecting scales, similar to those 

 on a cedar-cone. Each of these scales is 

 one of the bricks that have been produced 

 from the hump. The casket is not large: 

 a cherry-stone would about represent its 

 dimensions; but it is so accurate, so prettily 

 fashioned that it will bear comparison with 

 the finest products of entomological in- 

 dustry. 



The Bull Onthophagus has not a mono- 

 poly of this jeweller's art: all, throughout 

 the group, excel in it to the same degree. 

 One of the smallest, the Forked Ontho- 

 phagus, whose work is hardly larger than a 

 pepper-corn, is as expert as the others in the 

 manufacture of boxes shaped like a cedar- 

 cone. It is a family-gift, an invariable gift, 

 despite all differences in size, costume or 

 hornery. The Bison Onitis, the Yellow- 

 footed Oniticellus and certainly many others 

 retire, for the transformation, into a resi- 

 dence similar in architecture to that of the 

 Ontbophagi; they too tell us that instincts 

 are independent of structure. 



406 



