158 NATURE STUDY. 



The Beetle Family. 



ALBERT LEA, IN ORANGE JUDD FARMER. 



What is that flashing jewel that scampers across the 

 dusty road ? It must be an emerald, it is such a splendid, 

 shining, green color. Let us go closer and look at it, soft- 

 ly, softly. Ah ! it hears us and is off, and flying above our 

 heads when we are still a yard from the spot where it was 

 resting. It it too small for a bird, and butterflies never run. 

 Can you guess what it is ? 



A beetle, the beautiful tiger beetle. The beetle fami- 

 ly is a very large one, and there are some of the cousins, 

 and uncles and aunts or sisters or brothers in every coun- 

 try in the world. 



We all know how the cunning little lady bugs, red and 

 black, that fly away home when we hold them on our fin- 

 ger tips and tell them that their houses are on fire and 

 their children will burn.- 



The big brown dorbugs that come in and fly about the 

 lamp in the evening, with a loud humming noise, are bee- 

 tles, and so are those splendid golden fellows we call June 

 bugs. 



Sometimes when you are walking along beneath the 

 trees perhaps you will meet a stag beetle with his fine 

 large horns. 



If you come across a dead bird or field mouse lying on 

 the roadside, you m.ust turn it over and see the burying 

 beetles at work. 



They are very busj' creatures and very useful to us be- 

 cause as soon as any little animal dies they gather round 

 it in great crowds and dig out the earth from under it un- 

 til there is a hole deep enough for it to sink down into. 

 Then it is carefully covered up, and when they are hun- 

 gry the}^ go where there is a hearty meal waiting for them. 



There are beetles that live in the ponds and brooks, too. 



