70 
APOLOGY FOPv BEETLES. 
with mole-like paws. As for beetles, they abounded 
everywhere ! 
Perhaps it may seem absurd to lavish praise and 
bestow regard upon creatures not usually viewed 
with feelings of love or admiration, but I must agam 
confess I have a liking for beetles. ‘‘ A beetle is a 
beauty in the eye of its mother,” says the Arabic 
proverb, and, I may add, in the eyes of the ento- 
mologist also. Be that as it may, I shall add here 
that, in whatever direction I looked, I found won- 
derfully fashioned creatures of this tribe, shining 
and bejewelled, and nicely adapted to the place of 
their abode. Under the surface of the bamboo 
leaves 1 observed the giant lady-bird ; in the grass 
lurked a spiny tortoise - beetle ; clinging to the 
stems was a black and red flower-beetle ; on the 
wing disported a bright little unicorn-beetle ; on 
the ground crept a soberly bedight, soft-brown 
chaffer ; on the stones shone a glittering gold- 
beetle ; under the oolam trees I discovered a dull- 
green fellow ; on the trefoil leaves in the sunny pea 
fields were sun-beetles and gold-beetles. Besides 
