AND LOWER EGYPT. 369 



appear very quickly into the numerous holes which 

 they form at the foot of rare plants and shrubs of 

 a rude aspect, and which appear to partake of the 

 barrenness of the soil where they vegetate. They 

 do not conceal themselves there a Ions time, and 

 we could very easily surprise them by watching 

 when they came out of their retreat, and present- 

 ing the butt end of our guns to them. I took a 

 living one in my hand ; he bit one of my fingers 

 with all his might, but he did not do me any in- 

 jury ; his jaws and his teeth, which are very slen- 

 der, were too weak to occasion any pain, 



I found upon the sands that species of carabus 

 aptirus, or without wings under the sheaths, de- 

 scribed by Citizen Olivier, under the denomination 

 of the spotted carab *, and another species with 

 wings under its sheaths, the body of which is 

 lengthened and flattened, is four lines and a half 

 long, and it has a broad and bordered corselet, 

 with two little hollows on the posterior border; the 

 sheaths bordered and lightly marked with longitu- 

 dinal lines each one of three points; the upper 

 part of the head and of the corselet, as well as the 



* Carabus aptirus ater, thorace corJato, albo marigi/iato, elytris ma- 

 cults plurimis albu — Carabus mult i gut tat us. Curabe mouchet6. 

 Olivier, Enc. Meth. Nota. These carabs are the same insects 

 which Geoffroie has called bu/irestts. Hist, des Imectes des Env. 

 de Paris. 



vol. i. b b sheaths, 



