46 



[NSECT MISCELLANIES, 



ployed, deceived by the very sense given them by 

 Providence to direct their instinct.* Upon the sea- 

 beach, we have often been struck with the almost in- 

 stantaneous appearance of clouds of stercorarious flies 

 attracted by a recent horse-dropping, though not one 

 had been in sight an instant before ; and many of these 

 we have observed trooping on towards the place of 

 rendezvous, even in the face of the strong breeze which 

 had wafted to them the intelligence that put them in 

 motion. We once observed a pair of the burying 

 beetles [A^'ecrophorus sepidior, De Jean) in Copen- 

 hagen fields, flying at the height of about twenty 

 feet from the ground ; when they suddenly de- 

 scended, and crept under the body of a dead frog, 



Burying beetles ( Necrophonis sepultor), and dead frog. 

 * See Insect Transformations, page 6. 



