[712] Reaum. iii. 257.
[713] Ibid. iii. 277.
[714] Ibid. ii. 324.
[715] For an instance in which an insect, usually subsisting upon animal food, derived nutriment from a mineral substance, see Philos. Magaz. &c. for January 1823. 2—.
[716] Lesser, L. i. 259.
[717] x. 458.
[718] Dictionnaire Physique.
[719] In the controversy between the commentators on Shakespeare, as to whether shard[720] means wing-cases, dung, or a fragment of earthenware, and whether born should be spelled with or without the e, it might have thrown some weight into the scale of those who contend for the orthography adopted above, and that the meaning of shard in this place is dung, if they had been aware that the beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius) is actually born amongst dung, and no where else; and that no beetle which makes a hum in flying can with propriety be said, as Dr. Johnson has interpreted the epithet in his Dictionary, "to be born amongst broken stones or pots." That Shakespeare alluded to the Beetle, and not to the Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), seems clear from the fact of the former being to be heard in all places almost every fine evening in the summer, while the latter is common only in particular districts, and at one period of the year. S.
[720] Sharn is the common name of cow-dung in the North: therefore Shakespeare probably wrote sharn-born. Mr. MacLeay.
[721] De Geer, vii. 123.