ELEPHANT BEETLE. 
The cases to the wings of the Beetle tribes 
are the more necessary, as they all live fre- 
quently beneath the surface of the earth, in 
holes dug out by their own industrv. These 
cases, though they do not assist flight, but 
probably tend, if not to retard it, at least to 
limit it's duration, nevertheless serve to shield 
the inse61: from injury while in it's subterranean 
situation, as well as to preserve" the internal 
wings clean and even, and produce a loud buz - 
zins: noise when the Beetle rises into the air. 
The security, indeed, which this inse61: de- 
rives from it's shelly covering, has called forth 
the moralizing ideas of our unequalled bard. 
*' And often, to our comfort, shall we find, 
The sharded Beetle in as safe a hold 
As is tho full-vvingcd Eagle." 
SH AKSPEARE. 
The B.'ctle, indeed, seems to have been par- 
ticularly regarded bv Shakspeare; who makes, 
in li's behalf, one of his noblest appeals to hu- 
manity. 
E'en [he jioor Beetle, that we tread upon, 
In corj-ioral siiftoraiK-e feels a pang as great, 
As when a Giant dies 
The 
