"tumble-dung", 1763; antedates OED2 1775--

[Joel S. Berson]

"The American ball BEETLE, called by the inhabitants Tumble-dung, is
the most numerous and remarkable of the Beetle-kind of any in
North-America. Their employment is to find nests for their eggs. They
are endowed with sagacity to discover subsistance by their excellent
smelling, which directs them in flights to excrements just fallen
from man or beast, on which they instantly drop, and fall unanimously
to work in forming round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of
which they lay an egg. These pellets in September, they convey three
feet deep in the earth where they lye till the approach of spring,
when the eggs are hatched and burst their nests, and the insects find
their way out of the earth. They assist each other with indefatigable
industry in rolling these globular balls or pellets to the place
where they are to be buried. This they are to perform with the breech
foremost, by raising up their hinder part, and shoving along the ball
with their hind feet."

R. Brookes, _The Natural Hisotry of Insects, with their Properties
and used in Medicine_, Vol. IV (London: J. Newbery, 1763), p. 25.

"tumble-, comb. form",  antedates OED2 "tumble-dung n." 1775--.

By their employment, they must be indentured servants, immigrated
from England.  I note without further comment "just fallen from man or beast".

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org