234 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



force against the telegraph wires and had fallen 

 dead upon the hard highway. A couple of Sexton 

 Beetles were doing their best to make some impres- 

 sion upon the road, but the steam-roller had done 

 its work too effectually. We were unable to follow 

 what happened to that bird, but in all probability 

 the beetles would make an effort to shift it off the 

 road to the softer marginal land. Failing that 

 expedient, they would be likely to make a good meal 

 and leave it to chance. 



In the case of an insect that buries such material 

 it is in the ordinary way difficult to follow what 

 happens. When a thing disappears from the place 

 where we left it we are likely to ascribe its absence 

 to anything but the actual cause ; and if Gleditsch 

 had not thought of making experiments under 

 somewhat artificial conditions we might have 

 waited long before learning the truth. 



He placed a dead mole on one of his garden beds, 

 where, of course, the soil was sufficiently loose 

 for these Sextons to work. On the third morning 

 after so placing it the mole had disappeared. 

 Digging where it had been laid, he came upon 

 it at a depth of three inches, and under it were 

 four beetles. He did not attach great importance 

 to that fact, although on examining the mole and 

 finding nothing singular in its appearance, he 

 thought perhaps the beetles might have been con- 

 cerned in some way in the operation. So he 

 buried the carcase again in the same grave, and 

 left it for an interval of six days, when he found it 



