MR. AND MRS. TUMBLE-BUG 55 



But aside from his historical fame, he will well 

 repay our careful study, and serve to while away a 

 pleasant hour in the observance of his queer hab- 

 its. He is now no longer the awe - inspiring 

 sacred scarab, but Mr. Tumble-bug, or, rather, " Mr. 

 and Mrs. Tumble-bug," for a tumble-bug always 

 pictured in the ancient hieroglyph is rarely to be 

 seen in its natural haunts. Mr. and Mrs. Tum- 

 ble-bug are devoted and inseparable, and, as a rule, 

 vie with each other in the solicitude for that pre- 

 cious rolling ball with which the insects are al- 

 ways associated. From June to autumn we may 

 find our tumble - bugs. There are a number of 

 species included in the group of Scarabseus to 

 which they belong. Two species are particularly 

 familiar, one of a lustrous bronzy hue, with a very 

 rounded back, usually found at work on the coun- 

 try highway in the track of the horse, and the 

 other, the true typical tumble -bug, a flat- backed, 

 jet-black lustrous species which we naturally as- 

 sociate with the barn-yard and cow-pasture. The 

 latter may be taken as an illustrative example of 

 his class, and his ways are identical with those of 

 his ancient sacred congener and present inhabi- 

 tant of Egypt. 



When we first see them they are generally ma- 

 nipulating the ball — a small mass of manure in 

 which an egg has been laid, and which by rolling 

 in the dust has now become round and firmly in- 



