THE BURYING BEETLE. 119 



love of labour, nor yet in love of self, but is, in fact, like the 

 mainspring of various other insect actions, of a parental cha- 

 racter. Its eggs being first committed to the carcase, the 

 beetle then proceeds to commit that to the earth, in order that, 

 thus protected from predatory birds and foxes, it may afford 

 provision for her young, as soon as, in the shape of larvae, they 

 come into existence. This most curious practice of instinctive 

 sagacity was first noticed by a foreign naturalist, M. Gleditsch, 

 who, having observed the mysterious disappearance of moles, 

 laid upon the beds in his garden, discovered that beetles were 

 the agents of their inhumation, effected for the purpose above 

 named. To watch their proceedings more narrowly, he put 

 four of these insect grave-diggers into a glass vessel, half 

 filled with earth, on the surface of which were laid two dead 

 frogs. Of these, one was interred in less than twelve hours 

 the other on the third day. He then introduced a dead linnet, 

 on which the beetles were speedily engaged. They began 

 their operations by pushing out the earth from under the body, 

 so as to form a cavity for its reception : and it was curious to 

 see the efforts which they made, by dragging from below at the 

 feathers of the bird, to pull it into its grave. The male, 

 having driven the female away, continued to work alone for five 

 hours. He lifted up the bird, changed its place, turned and 

 arranged it in its grave, from time to time coming out of the 

 hole, mounting on the carcase, treading it underfoot, and 

 then again retiring below to draw it to a greater depth. At 



