SANITARY OFFICERS 235 



was swarming with grubs. These he now thought 

 must be the young of his beetles, and jumped to 

 the conclusion that the parents had buried the 

 mole for the sustenance of their unborn progeny. 



The surmise must be put to the test. Hunting 

 for some of the beetles, he found four, and these 

 he put into a covered glass vessel half filled with 

 earth, and on the surface he placed a couple of 

 dead frogs. Before twelve hours had passed one 

 of these frogs had been interred by two of the 

 beetles, whilst the other two spent a day in running 

 over and about the remaining frog, as though taking 

 its dimensions and estimating how deep a grave 

 would be required. But on the third day this 

 frog also had disappeared. Then he introduced a 

 dead linnet, which was soon found by a pair of 

 the beetles, and they provided him with a demon- 

 stration of their skill. They got under the bird 

 and began scraping away the earth, and pushing 

 it aside with their hind legs. 



" It was curious to see the efforts which the 

 beetles made by dragging at the feathers of the bird 

 from below to pull it into its grave. The male, 

 having driven the female away, continued the work 

 alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, changed 

 its place, turned it, and arranged it in the grave, 

 and from time to time came out of the hole, mounted 

 upon it and trod it under foot, and then retired 

 below and pulled it down. At length, apparently 

 wearied with this uninterrupted labour, it came 

 forth and leaned its head upon the earth beside 



