Ail the arrangements of the
insect tribe, though prompted by sheer instinct are conducted
with a degree of rationality that in some cases raises the mere
instinct of the creeping thing above the assumed "reason" of man.
The bird builds her nest and carefully provides for the comfort
of her young long ere she lays her fragile egg. Even look at
that vulgar-looking beetle, whose coarse form would banish the
idea of any rational feeling existing in its brain - the
Billingsgate fish-woman of its tribe in coarseness and rudeness
of exterior (Scarabaeus carnifex) - see with what quickness she
is running backward, raised almost upon her head, while with her
bind legs she trundles a large ball; herself no bigger than a
nutmeg, the ball is four times the size. There she goes along the
smooth road. The ball she has just manufactured from some
fresh-dropped horse-dung; it is as round as though turned by a
lathe, and, although the dung has not lain an hour upon the
ground, she and her confederates have portioned out the spoil,
and each has started off with her separate ball. Not a particle
of horsedung remains upon the road. Now she has rolled the ball
away from the hard road, and upon the soft, sandy border she has
stopped to rest.
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