So far the insect has only raw material, put together anyhow. The first thing to do is to select very carefully, taking what is most delicate for the inner layers, upon which the larva will feed, and the coarser for the outer ones which merely serve as a protecting shell. Then around a central hollow which receives the egg the materials must be arranged layer after layer, according to their decreasing fineness and nutritive value; the strata must be made consistent and adhere one to another; and finally, the bits of fibre in the outside crust, which has to protect the whole thing, must be felted together. How can the Scarabæus, clumsy and stiff as it seems, accomplish such a work in complete darkness, at the bottom of a hole so full of provisions that there is barely room to move? When I think how delicate is the work done and how rude the tools of the workman,—of the angular feet fitted to hollow the ground, and, if need be, even tufa,—I am reminded of an elephant trying to make lace. Explain who can this miracle of maternal industry; I give it up, especially as it has not been my good fortune to see the artist at work. Let us restrict ourselves to describing this masterpiece. The ball which contains the egg is generally as large as a middle-sized apple. In the midst is an oval cavity about a centimetre in diameter. At the bottom is the egg, fixed vertically; it is cylindrical, rounded at each end, yellowish-white, about as large as a grain of wheat, but shorter. The wall of the hollow is washed over with a greenish-brown, semi-fluid matter, manure cream, destined as the first food of the larva. Does the mother collect the quintessence of the dung to make this delicate food? The look of it tells me that it is a pap prepared in the maternal stomach. The pigeon softens grain in its crop, and turns it into a kind of milk food which it disgorges for its nestlings. It would seem that the beetle shows the same tender care. It half digests the choice food, and disgorges it in the shape of a delicate film to line the walls of the cavity where the egg is laid. Thus, when first hatched, the larva finds food easy of digestion, which rapidly strengthens its stomach and allows it to attack the under layers which lack the same refinement of preparation. Under the semi-fluid paste is a choice pulp, compact and homogeneous, whence every particle of fibre is banished. Beyond are the coarser strata where vegetable fibres abound, and finally the outside of the ball is composed of the coarsest materials felted together into a resistant shell. Manifestly there is a progressive change of diet. On issuing from the egg the feeble grub licks the fine paste on the walls of its dwelling. There is but little of it, still it is strengthening and of high nutritious value. To the bottle of early infancy succeeds the pap of the weanling, intermediate between the dainty fare of the start and the coarse nourishment at the end.