ROSE-BEETLE. 251 



reside, can contract but little impurity. Birds are 

 unceasingly attentive to neatness and lustration of 

 their plumage. All the slug race, though covered 

 with slimy matter calculated to collect extraneous 

 things, and reptiles, are perfectly free from soil. The 

 fur and hair of beasts, in a state of liberty and health, 

 is never filthy, or sullied with dirt. Some birds roll 

 themselves in dust, and, occasionally, particular beasts 

 cover themselves with mire ; but this is not from any 

 liking or inclination for such things, hut to free them- 

 selves from annoyances, or to prevent the bites of 

 insects. Whether birds in preening, and beasts in 

 dressing themselves, be directed by any instinctive 

 faculty, we know not; but they evidently derive 

 pleasure from the operation, and thus this feeling of 

 enjoyment, even if the sole motive, becomes to them 

 an essential source of comfort and of health."* 



The rose or green chafer (Cetonia aurata), which 

 is one of our prettiest native insects, is one of the bur- 

 rowers, and, for the purpose of depositing her eggs, 

 digs, about the middle of June, into soft light ground. 

 When she is seen at this operation, with her broad 

 and delicate wings folded up in their shining green 

 cases, speckled with white, it could hardly be ima- 

 gined that she had but just descended from the air, 

 or dropped down from some neighbouring rose. 



The proceedings of the Tumble-Dung Beetle of 

 America (Scarabmm pilularius, Linn.) are described 

 in a very interesting manner by Catesby, in his 

 'Carolina.' "I have," says he," attentively admired 

 their industry, and mutual assisting of each other in 

 rolling their globular balls from the place where they 

 made them to that of their interment, which is usually 

 the distance of some yards, more or less. This they 

 perform breech foremost, by raising their hind parts, 

 and forcing along the ball with their hind feet. Two 

 * Journal of a Naturalist, p. 311. 



