CH. YIII.] COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. 139 



from the surface and buried three inches beneath 

 the soil. It was strange that the dark and peaceful 

 life of a mole should have merited at some friendly 

 hand the honours of the sepulchre : observing noth- 

 ing, however, but four beetles under the carcass, he 

 buried the creature again, and found that in six days 

 it swarmed with maggots. It then struck M. Gle- 

 ditsch that these were the progeny of the beetles he 

 had seen, and that these had performed the rites of 

 sepulture for the purpose of safely committing their 

 young to a mass which, if not concealed, would have 

 been destroyed by the first carrion crow.* Accord- 

 ingly he placed four of these beetles under a glass 

 cover, and gave them two dead frogs. In twelve 

 hours, two of the insects had buried one of the 

 frogs ; the other two ran about the whole day, ap- 

 parently busied in measuring the dimensions of 

 their work ; and, on the third day, the second frog 

 was also buried. M. Gleditsch then gave them a 

 dead hnnet : a pair of beetles immediately prepared 

 to inter the bird. They pushed out the earth from 

 under the body, and tugged at the feathers, and made 

 all the efforts suitable to their end. The male, how- 

 ever, chose to drive away the female, and for five 

 hours to labour alone. He lifted up and turned the 

 bird, gave it a more convenient arrangement, and 

 from time to time mounted on the carcass to tread 

 it down. At length, wearied with its labour, it leaned 

 its head upon the earth, beside the bird, and for a 

 full hour remained as motionless as the corpse by 

 its side. After this it proceeded with renewed 

 vigour. And by dint of pulling from below and 

 treading it down from above, the dead linnet was 

 buried on the third day. The result of these ex- 

 periments was, that in fifty days, our four beetles 



* Could one have imagined, says M. G., that a small beetle, 

 without the aid or assistance of any other stronger creature, 

 could bury under the earth, in so short a space of time, a mole, 

 which surpassed it at least thirty times in bulk and in weight ? 



