258 LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
a passing fly, or down rapidly to seize some 
tiny water insect, or to escape an enemy that is 
approaching. For, in fact, these beetles have an 
unfair advantage in life, having each of their eyes 
divided in two parts, one half looking down into the 
pond below, and the other half up into the air, so 
that they can literally keep " half an eye " upon any 
suspicious creature in either element. Theirs is a 
life of many experiences, for after beginning their 
existence on the surface of water-plants, where the 
mother places the eggs, they dive down as grubs to 
the bottom of the pond, breathing by hairy gills, and 
leaping actively here and there by four curious little 
hooks on their tails, feeding vigorously all the while ; 
then they creep up into the air, and spinning fine 
cocoons upon the leaves of a water-plant, remodel 
their bodies ; and finally, as tiny beetles they lead a 
giddy life on the pond-surface, darting here and 
there as fancy guides them. 
But, quick as these and many other water and 
land beetles are, both in catching and escaping other 
animals, it is a curious fact that it is among the 
scavenger and filth-feeding beetles that we must look 
for the highest intelligence these creatures possess. 
It is the dung-feeding beetle, the sacred Scarabaeus 
of the Egyptians, which rolls up a ball of dung 
with her hind legs, and then sometimes alone, some- 
times in company with another beetle which hopes 
to share or steal the booty, rolls the ball to a con- 
venient place, and digging a hole by means of the 
large spines on her front legs, buries it and herself 
with it, so that she may feed upon it in safety. 
Then later on in the year she hollows out a closed 
