d indissolubly linked together to propagate large families
Of starving children. 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.
No great amount of rest; she plunges her head into the ground, and with
that shovel-like projection of stout horn she mines her way below: she
has disappeared even in these few seconds.

Presently the apparently deserted ball begins to move, as though acted
on by some subterranean force; gradually it sinks to the earth, and it
vanishes altogether.

Some persons might imagine that she feeds upon the ordure, and that she
has buried her store as a dog hides a bone; but this is not the case;
she has formed a receptacle for her eggs, which she deposits in the
ball of dung, the warmth of which assists in bringing the larvae into
life, which then feed upon the manure.

It is wonderful to observe with what rapidity all kinds of dung are
removed by these beetles. This is effected by the active process of
rolling the loads instead of carrying, by which method a large mass is
transported at once.

The mason-fly is also a ball-maker, but she carries her load and builds
an elaborate nest. This insect belongs to the order "Hymenoptera," and
is of the Ichneumon tribe, being a variety of upward of four hundred
species of that inte