‘Thou shalt have a place without the camp,’ he says, ‘to which thou mayst go for the necessities of nature, carrying a paddle at thy girdle. And, when thou sittest down, thou shalt dig round about and with the earth that is dug up thou shalt cover that which thou art eased of’ (Deut. xxiii. 12–14). The simple precept touches a matter of grave concern; and we may well believe that, if Islam, at the time of its great pilgrimages to the Kaaba, were to take the same precaution and a few more of a similar character, Mecca would cease to be an annual seat of cholera and Europe would not need to mount guard on the shores of the Red Sea to protect herself against the scourge. Heedless of hygiene as the Arab, who was one of his ancestors, the Provençal peasant does not suspect the danger. Fortunately, the Dung-beetle, that faithful observer of the Mosaic law, is at work. It is his to remove from sight, it is his to bury the microbe-laden matter. Supplied with digging-implements far superior to the paddle which the Israelite was to carry at his girdle when urgent business called him from the camp, he hastens to the spot and, as soon as man is gone, excavates a pit wherein the infection is swallowed up and rendered harmless. The services rendered by these sextons are of the highest importance to the health of the fields; yet we, who are those most interested in this constant work of purification, hardly vouchsafe the sturdy toilers a contemptuous glance. Popular language overwhelms them with harsh epithets. This appears to be the rule: do good and you shall be misjudged, you shall be traduced, stoned, trodden underfoot, as witness the Toad, the Bat, the Hedgehog, the Owl and other helpers who, for their services, ask nothing but a little tolerance. Now, of our defenders against the dangers of filth flaunted shamelessly in the rays of the sun, the most remarkable in our climes are the Geotrupes: not that they are more zealous than the others, but because their size makes them capable of heavier work. Moreover, when it is simply a question of their nourishment, they resort by preference to the materials which we have most to fear. My neighbourhood is worked by four species of Geotrupes. Two of them, G. mutator, Marsh, and G. sylvaticus, Panz., are rarities on which we had best not count for connected studies; the two others, on the contrary, G. stercorarius, Lin., and G. hypocrita, Schneid., are exceedingly common. Black as ink above, both of them are magnificently garbed below. We are quite surprised to find such a jewel-case among the professional scavengers. The under surface of the Stercoraceous Geotrupes is of a splendid amethyst-violet, while that of the Mimic Geotrupes makes a generous display of the ruddy gleams of copper pyrites. These two species are the inmates of my insect-houses.