The Burying-Beetles: Experiments 



Will the find thus hanging where it chances 

 to fall remain unemployed? Will the Necro- 

 phori pass on, indifferent to the superb mor- 

 sel which they see and smell a few inches 

 above their heads, or will they make it drop 

 from its gibbet? 



Game does not abound to such a point 

 that it can be despised if a few efforts will 

 obtain it. Before I see the thing happen, I 

 am persuaded that it will fall, that the Necro- 

 phori, often confronted with the difficulties 

 of a body not lying on the soil, must pos- 

 sess the instinct to shake it to the ground. 

 The fortuitous support of a few bits of stub- 

 ble, of a few interlaced twigs, so common 

 in the fields, cannot put them off. The drop 

 of the suspended body, if placed too high, 

 must certainly form part of their instinctive 

 methods. For the rest, let us watch them 

 at work. 



I plant in the sand of the cage a meagre 

 tuft of thyme. The shrub is at most some 

 four inches in height. In the branches I 

 place a Mouse, entangling the tail, the paws 

 and the neck among the twigs to increase the 

 difficulty. The population of the cage now 

 consists of fourteen Necrophori and will re- 

 main the same until the close of my investi- 

 gations. Of course they do not all take part 

 33i 



