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hiding by day. But if you want to observe their habits, you have 

 simply to place a dead bird, frog, mouse, or something of that 

 kind on the ground,— and so much the better if you choose 

 a piece of light sandy soil. If there are any beetles about, 

 you will observe next morning that the bird, or whatever it 

 may be, has sunk so much into the ground, it may be very little, 

 it may be half-an-inch, or it may be more, according to how the 

 work has progressed. If it has sunk at all, and you see any signs 

 of excavation round it, you may be sure the beetles are there; and 

 by gently lifting the turf, one or more pairs of the Sexton Beetles 

 will be found. And it is worthy of remark that the beetles are 

 always found in pairs; and the male beetle is the principal worker. 

 Now, if you get a spade and remove part of the earth, beetles and 

 altogether, put them in a big flower-pot full of mould, and cover 

 them with a glass shade, so as to prevent their escaping till their 

 work is finished, you will have a good opportunity of judging their 

 ways of living. They, will, in all probability, remain pretty quiet 

 during the day, but as the shades of evening begin to fall, they 

 bestir themselves. Their first duty on finding a suitable substance 

 is to help themselves, to what a citizen of U.S. would call a square 

 meal ; after that they set to business, the male, as I said before, 

 doing most of the digging. After the body has been buried deep 

 enough, and this occurs sometimes to the depth of several inches, 

 the female deposits her eggs in it; they then make their way to 

 the surface, and, using their long and powerful wings, go in quest 

 of fresh fields and pastures new. Though the Burying Beetle finds 

 its food by night, occasionally they may be seen flying during the 

 day : their sense of smell must be very acute, and they are 

 provided with ample wing power, as they must often have many a 

 long flight before their hunt is successful. It was often a won4er 

 with us in boyhood's days, why in our country rambles we so seldom 

 came across a dead bird or animal. At that time we knew nothing 

 of the Burying Beetle, but, with the expanse of knowledge, we 

 think now, that that mystery is solved, and the solution is the 

 Sexton Beetle. This insect by obeying a law of nature in provid- 

 ing for the future larva also does a signal good to us, by removing 



