The Burying-Beetles: The Burial 



land of the olive-tree is not rich in Necro- 

 phori. To my knowledge it possesses only 

 a single species, N. vestigator, HERSCH. ; 

 and even this rival of the grave-diggers of 

 the north is pretty scarce. The discovery of 

 three or four in the spring was as much as 

 my hunting-expeditions yielded in the old 

 days. This time, if I do not resort to the 

 ruses of the trapper, I shall obtain no more 

 than that, whereas I stand in need of at least 

 a dozen. 



These ruses are very simple. To go in 

 search of the sexton, who exists only here 

 and there in the country-side, would be nearly 

 always a waste of time; the favourable 

 month, April, would be past before my cage 

 was suitably stocked. To run after him is 

 to trust too much to accident; so we will 

 make him come to us by scattering in the 

 orchard an abundant collection of dead 

 Moles. To this carrion, ripened by the 

 sun, the insect will not fail to hasten from 

 the various points of the horizon, so accom- 

 plished is he in detecting such a delicacy. 



I make an arrangement with a gardener 

 in the neighbourhood, who, two or three 

 times a week, makes up for the penury of 

 my two acres of stony ground by providing 

 me with vegetables raised in a better soil. 

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