EURYING BEETLES. 87 



be known by the fact that the antennae have ten joints, and a 

 very distinct and rounded club. Their wings are very large 

 and powerful, as is needful for insects whose food is necessarily 

 scattered over a very wide area. It is worthy of notice that, 

 when they are flying, their elytra are cai'ried very upright, so 

 tliat their backs approach quite closely to each other. 



The first genus of the Silphidae is Necrophorus, a word 

 which signifies ' carrion-bearer,' in allusion to the singular 

 habits possessed by all the Beetles of this genus. They do not 

 content themselves with merely eating their food, but they 

 bury it, and then lay their eggs in it, so that it serves not only 

 as a feast for themselves, but as a provision for their future 

 young. In consequence of this habit, they go by the popidar 

 name of Burying, or Sexton Beetles. It is a very appropriate 

 name, for there is scarcely any dead animal or portion of an 

 animal which they will not contrive to bury; and if it be too 

 large for one Beetle, several others will take a share in the 

 work. If the reader will refer to Plate IV., he will see that a 

 number of these Beetles are engaged in burying a dead bird. 



They will bury birds, frogs, rabbits, pieces of meat, or any- 

 thing of a similar kind, and do it with wonderful rapidity ; thus 

 rendering a doubly important service, by removing the 

 decaying animal matter from the surface of the earth, and 

 helping to fertilise the ground by burying it below the sur- 

 face. The manner in which these Beetles execute so difficult 

 a task is admirably told by Mr. E. Newman, in his ' Letters of 

 Rusticus :' — 



' Two days after, I was again in Godbold's ; and seeing the 

 bullfinch lie where he had been left, I lifted him up by llie 

 leg, intending to make a present of him to a fine colony of 

 ants established, a little further on, in the days of General 

 Oglethorpe, and which had maintained their station ever since. 

 They had made many a pretty skeleton for me, and I intended 

 to add that of a bullfinch to the store; but the buzz of a Beetle 

 round my head caught my ear. He flew smack against the bull- 

 finch, which I was holding up by the leg, and fell at my feet. 

 I knew that the gentleman was a Burjping Beetle; and as I put 

 the bird down for him, he soon found it, mounted upon it, and, 

 after much examination, opened out his wing-cases and flew 

 away. I will profit by his absence to tell you a bit of his history 



