68 SACRED SCARAB^US. 



states that it was the peculiar interest which the 

 Scarabceus sacer of Linnseus excited as being a 

 principal among the many objects " qualia demens 

 ^gyptus coluit," that first led him to investigate 

 the natural history of the insect. His father's cabinet 

 contained one thousand eight hundred species of sca- 

 rabsei, and thus supplied him with an inducement to 

 commence the study, and with the means for its 

 successful cultivation. 



The sacred scarabseus, which first led MacLeay to 

 the study of Entomology, differs in some of its habits 

 from our most common native scarabsei, although 

 belonging to the same Linnsean genus. Its image 

 sculptured on many of the Egyptian monuments 

 affords a melancholy proof of the superstition which 

 reigned in a coimtry where the arts flourished and 

 science found an abode. The insect is still common 

 in Egypt, and excites by its habits the surprise of 

 all who have only been accustomed to see the com- 

 mon dor of these countries. Doctor Clarke says, 

 " Upon the sands around the city of Rosetta we saw 

 the Scarabseus pilularius, or rolling beetle, [it is now 

 more properly termed the Scarabaeus sacer,] as it is 

 sculptured on the obehsks and other monuments of 

 the country, moving before it a baU of dung, in 

 which it deposits an i:gg. Among the Egyptian 

 antiquities preserved in the British Museum is a 



