46 [February, 



found among carrion, even to three GeoJephaga, a pine-feeding 

 Rhizopliagiis, some Cryptophac/i and an Atomaria, whose presence in 

 such a pabulum is surely accidental. 



The actual figures are 113 species of CoJeoptera, and these may 

 be divided into four classes :— (1) Those who are simply sheltering 

 beneath carrion, or have possibly been attracted to it in order to prey 

 upon carrion-feeders — as the last mentioned kinds ; (2) Those which 

 will devour any decaying animal -and in some cases, as in Cercyon 

 and Phalacrus, vegetable— matter ; (3) Those occasionally found in 

 this situation, though much more frequently in some others ; and 

 (4) The genuine burying-beetles and scavengers, whose eggs are 

 protected by and larvae subsist upon decaying vertebrate animals. 



1. — In the first class I place Calathus fuscu.i, Bemliidium ohtusum and 

 Cymindis axillaris, all of which have occurred to me in April, February and 

 July respectively, beneath a crow, a rabbit and a gull ; Chilopora longitarsis 

 I have seen approaching a mole, though I have never taken it in carrion ; three 

 Quedii, impressus, fuUginosus and mesomelinus, have each occurred to me once in 

 a crow in March and April (the first-named also in pigeon in May and rabbit in 

 September), but I incline to think, on account of their usually subterranean habits, 

 that their presence was accidental, especially as Q. impressus is often abundant in 

 sheep's dung. Trogo^Maus rivnlaris was certainly once found on a dog in April, 

 but the latter was lying in a very swampy place, and the specimen was probably 

 but a casual wanderer. Perhaps Rhizophagus depressus should be classed with the 

 fur-and-feather species, but since this — seven specimens — were but once found (on 

 a hung-up jay in April) in a fir wood where they are common in their natural 

 habitat, they more probably belong here. Single specimens of Monotonia picipes in 

 rook in May, Atomaria ruficornis in horse's skin in June, Shinosimus planirostris in 

 a " bird " in June, Cryptophagus dentatus in mouse in May, and C. lycoperdi (so 

 named by Newbery) in crow in April — all these are certainly accidental, unless the 

 first should prove to be a " bone species." 



2. — The second class embraces sixteen of my species, and to it may certainly 

 be referred the three Cercyons, analis, littoralis and unipunctatus, all found in 

 a dog on the beach of a salt-water river in the middle of April ; the second species 

 was in hundreds and was also found in the same situation during the following 

 March ; the last was also taken on a cow's head in a ditch at Lyndhurst in August. 

 On the same dog was Cajius xantholoma , which appears pretty omnivorous if the 

 food be but flavoured with sufiicient salinity. Platystethus arenarius in the cow's 

 head at Lyndhurst, Oxytelus inustus in a pigeon in May, O. rugosus and 0. sculptu- 

 ratus in dogs in April, have each only occurred upon one occasion ; 0. sculptus has 

 twice turned up in rats in the middle of April, 1895 and 1904; and O. tetra- 

 carinatus twice, in a crow and a pigeon in March and May. Lathrimieum and 

 Iloinalimn are found in such a variety of situations that they cannot be claimed as 

 true carrion feeders, although L. tmicolor and H. rivulare have both occurred upon 

 four occasions, the former always in birds (crows in March and April, pigeon in 



