140 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. VIII 



had interred twelve carcasses, viz. : four frogs, three 

 small birds, two fishes, one mole, two grasshoppers, 

 besides the entrails of a fish, and tv/o morsels of the 

 lungs of an ox. 



These laborious operations generally take place 

 when the weather becomes steadily warm, say from 

 the middle of April to the end of October ; and it is 

 the smaller carcasses only which are thus buried, to 

 form a proper nidus for the eggs, and to nourish the 

 young family which spring from them ; thus nature 

 has ordained the procreation of this species should 

 go on under ground, because foxes, ravens, and 

 other carnivorous creatures, devouring the bodies 

 above ground, would swallow the larvae of this 

 beetle along with their food, which might possibly 

 extirpate these singular but useful insects. The 

 eggs deposited by the parent insect are white ; from 

 these the larvae proceed, which are, when full grown, 

 more than an inch in length, and of a yellowish 

 white colour, with a scaly orange-coloured shield 

 across the middle of each division of the body. 

 Each larvae forms for itself an oval cell in the 

 ground, in which it changes to a yellowish chrysa- 

 lis, out of which, in the space of about eighteen 

 days, proceeds the perfect insect, as represented in 

 the figure. 



There is a small beetle occasionally found under 

 stones and under heaps of rotten plants, in many 

 parts of Great Britain, and known by the name of 

 Bombardier {Brachinus crepitans), \\\i'\c\\, as its cog- 

 nomen imports, may be considered as the artillery- 

 man of insects. It has the power of emitting a 

 volume of blue acrid smoke, accompanied with an 

 explosion, which never fails to arrest the attack, 

 and for a moment confound the audacious enemy, 

 especially the splendid carnivorous beetle (Ca/o.<?oma 

 sycophanta). When its assailant has recovered the 

 effect of its surprise, the pursuit is renewed, a sec- 

 ond discharge again stops its career, and durmg the 



