BURYING-BEETLES: EXPERIMENTS 87 



above their heads, or will they make it descend from its 

 gibbet ? 



Game does not abound to such a point that it can be 

 disdained if a few efforts will obtain it. Before I see 

 the thing happen I am persuaded that it will fall, that 

 the Necrophori, often confronted by the difficulties of a 

 body which is not lying on the soil, must possess the 

 instinct to shake it to the ground. The fortuitous sup- 

 port of a few bits of stubble, of a few interlaced bram- 

 bles, a thing so common in the fields, should not be able 

 to baffle them. The overthrow of the suspended body, 

 if placed too high, should certainly form part of their 

 instinctive methods. For the rest, let us watch them at 

 work. 



I plant in the sand of the cage a meager tuft of thyme. 

 The shrub is at most some four inches in height. In 

 the branches I place a Mouse, entangling the tail, the 

 paws and the neck among the twigs in order to increase 

 the difficulty. The population of the cage now consists 

 of fourteen Necrophori and will remain the same until 

 the close of my investigations. Of course they do not 

 all take part simultaneously in the day's work; the ma- 

 jority remain underground, somnolent, or occupied in 

 setting their cellars in order. Sometimes only one, often 

 two, three or four, rarely more, busy themselves with 

 the dead creature which I offer them. To-day two 

 hasten to the Mouse, who is soon perceived overhead in 

 the tuft of thyme. 



They gain the summit of the plant by way of the wire 

 trellis of the cage. Here are repeated, with increased 



