BURYING-BEETLES: EXPERIMENTS 83 



without disagreement, but also without gratitude. They 

 were not summoned ; they were tolerated. In the glazed 

 shelter where I keep the cage I happened to catch one of 

 these chance assistants in the act. Passing that way in 

 the night and scenting dead flesh, he had entered where 

 none of his kind had yet penetrated of his own free will. 

 I surprised him on the wire-gauze dome of the cover. 

 If the wire had not prevented him, he w^ould have set to 

 work incontinently, in company with the rest. Had 

 my captives invited him? Assuredly not. He had 

 hastened thither attracted by the odor of the Mole, heed- 

 less of the efforts of others. So it was with those whose 

 obliging assistance is extolled. I repeat, in respect of 

 their imaginary prowess, what I have said elsewhere of 

 that of the Sacred Beetles : the story is a childish one, 

 worthy of ranking with any fairy-tale written for the 

 amusement of the simple. 



A hard soil, necessitating the removal of the body, is 

 not the only difficulty familiar to the Necrophori. Often, 

 perhaps more often than not, the ground is covered with 

 grass, above all with couch-grass, whose tenacious root- 

 lets form an inextricable network below the surface. To 

 dig in the interstices is possible, but to drag the dead ani- 

 mal through them is another matter: the meshes of the 

 net are too close to give it passage. Will the grave- 

 digger find himself reduced to impotence by such an im- 

 pediment, which must be an extremely common one? 

 That could not be. 



Exposed to this or that habitual obstacle in the exercise 

 of his calling, the animal is always equipped accordingly; 



