82 
NATURAL HISTOBY OF 
crocosm, and presenting to the eye of the beholder 
no unapt imitation of the unequal surface of the 
earth, now horrid with mis-shapen rocks, ridges, and 
precipices, now swelling into hills and mountains, 
and now sinking into valleys, glens, and caves/’* 
But the singular appearance of the greater number 
is produced by the horrid array of horns, spines, 
and other projections with which they are furnished. 
Some of these appendages are so remarkable as to 
be wholly unparalleled in any other department of 
the animal kingdom, and we are often wholly at a 
loss to conjecture what purposes they were intended 
to serve. In some instances ( Scarabceus Syphax , 
and several allied species) three pointed horns, nearly 
half the length of the body, project forwards from 
the thorax, one on each side, and the other just over 
the head. Another species of large size ( Scarabcens 
Actceon) has a long and powerful horn issuing from 
its head, curved backwards, and bifid at the point, 
and having a strong tooth on its upper side towards 
the base, while two other horns stand out from the tho- 
rax, one on each side. A middle-sized species, of a 
uniform reddish-brown colour ( Scarabceus claviger ), 
bears on the centre of its thorax a long stout horn, 
which is dilated in an angular manner at the tip, 
and curved forwards so as nearly to meet another 
of a slender subulate form arising from the crown 
* Introduction to Entomology, by the Rev. ‘William 
Kirby and William Spence, Esq. vol. i. 
