250 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



seemingly inquisitive. I soon found that they dropped 

 on some recent nuisance: but what powers of per- 

 ception must these creatures possess, drawn from all 

 distances and directions by the .very little fetor which, 

 in such a calm evening, could be diffused around, 

 and by what inconceivable means could odours reach 

 this beetle in such a manner as to rouse so inert an 

 insect into action! But it is appointed one of the 

 great scavengers of the earth, and marvelously en- 

 dowed with powers of sensation, and means of effect- 

 ing this purpose of its being. Exquisitely fabricated 

 as it is to receive impressions, yet probably it is not 

 more highly gifled than any of the other innumerable 

 creatures that wing their way around us, or creep 

 about our paths, though by this one perceptible 

 faculty, thus ' dimly seen,' it excites our wonder and 

 surprise. How wondrous then the whole! 



" The perfect cleanliness of these , creatures is a 

 very notable circumstance, when we consider that 

 nearly their whole lives are passed in burrowing in 

 the earth, and removing nuisances; yet such is the 

 admirable pohsh of their coating and limbs, that we 

 very seldom find any soil adhering to them. The 

 meloe, and some of the scarabsei, upon first emerging 

 from their winter's retreat, are commonly found with 

 earth clinging to them; but the removal of this is 

 one of the first operations of the creature; and all 

 the beetle race, the chief occupation of which is 

 crawling about the soil and such dirty employs, are 

 notwithstanding remarkable for the glossiness of 

 their covering, and freedom from defilements of any 

 kind. But purity of vesture seems to be a principal 

 precept of nature, and observable throughout creation. 

 Fishes, from the nature of the element in which they 

 reside, can contract but little impurity. Birds are 

 unceasingly attentive to neatness and lustration of 

 their plumage. All the slug race, though covered 



