The failure of the great majority proves that the single fugitive was simply digging at random.

Circumstances favoured him; and that is all.

Do not let us make it a merit that he succeeded where all the others failed.
Let us also beware of attributing to the Necrophori an understanding more limited than is usual in entomological psychology.

I find the ineptness of the undertaker in all the insects reared under the wire cover, on the bed of sand into which the rim of the dome sinks a little way.

With very rare exceptions, fortuitous accidents, no insect has thought of circumventing the barrier by way of the base; none has succeeded in gaining the exterior by means of a slanting tunnel, not even though it were a miner by profession, as are the Dung-beetles par excellence.