ent Egyptians. The lump of earth
containing the eggs was considered an emblem of fruitfulness, and the
devotion of the scarabaeus, which would lose its life rather than its
precious eggs, was thought to symbolize the exceeding love of the
Creator toward men.

The tiger-beetles, of which there are many varieties, are one of the
most important branches of the family. They have great hooked jaws,
formed to seize the small insects upon which they live. They can not
exist in very cold countries, and they are rarely found in cultivated
land, as they prefer burrowing in loose, sandy soil, where their little
homes are not in danger of being disturbed by the gardener's spade. A
remarkable tiger-beetle is the gold-cross of India, which has a deep
velvety black body, and a golden mark on its wings in shape like a St.
Andrew's cross. The prevailing colors of the tiger-beetle are black,
green, and blue; but there is a little Brazilian member of the family of
a glistening metallic crimson. It has very long legs, and prefers
climbing among the foliage to living on the ground, like most varieties
of the tiger-beetle. Its movements are very quick. It will pounce like
lightning on a fly, which can rarely escape the grasp of this formidable
enemy.

A very curious beetle is the bombardier, a brown creature with green
gloss on its wings. It carries a little bomb-shell, which it uses as a
weapon of defense when disturbed by an enemy. It is a very sociable
little bug, and will gather in a crowd under big flat stones in damp
places. If the stone is suddenly overturned, the bombardiers at once
begin a cannonade like the explosion of a grain of gunpowder, and throw
out a puff of whitish vapor resembling smoke. The bombardiers of South
America, China, and other warm countries, are much larger than those
found in England, and the fluid they eject, which causes the tiny
explosion, is capable of making a black stain, and leaving an unpleasant
burning sensation upon the hand of any one trying to capture them.

A large member of the beetle family is found in Nicaragua. It is about
five inches long, and is called the big-bodied elephant. It is black in
color, but appears of a yellowish-chestnut, as it is entirely covered
with a thick, soft fur, something like the down on a butterfly's wing,
which rubs off very easily, and shows the scaly black surface beneath.
The big-bodied elephant is armed with a formidable black horn, forked at
the end, which cu