200 NATURK .STUDY. 



places where the brook runs somewhat swiftly over a sandy 

 or gravelly bottom, will be found caddice-worms that make 

 their houses of tiny stones, often with little snails built 

 into the walls alive. 



On the surface of the eddies and pools will be found the 

 water-striders, actually walking and running on the water, 

 and patches of whirligig beetles, with eyes above and be- 

 low, and whirling round and round like mad to. keep out 

 of trouble and catch something to eat. Now and then a 

 big water beetle or a water bug will be caught, the one 

 having jaws like all beetles, the other a sharp beak like 

 all bugs. These and many other queer creatures should 

 be placed in the aquarium and watched. It is better than 

 a story about things to see things one's self. As a bit of 

 encouragement, however, the next nature study lesson 

 will tell of some things that a real boy and girl have seen 

 in an aquarium. 



The Grave-Digging Beetle. 



The grave-digger beetle formed the subject of au interesting ex- 

 periment that was conducted recently by an ingenious stiident at 

 the university. The young man had secured from some place or 

 other four hale beetles of the grave-digger variety. He put them 

 in^ box filled with earth, and then he threw in to them a small, 

 dead sparrow. Instantly the beetles began to dig beside the bird. 

 They worked like beavers for two hours, when one of their number, 

 for some reason or other, ceased. But the rest kept on for three 

 hours more, when all dropped out but one. He indomitably con- 

 tinued, and in a little while he had finished a hole just big enough 

 for the sparrow and six inches deep. Then, with a. herculean 

 effort, he shoved the bird into the grave, and, with his companions, 

 piled on the soil again. For several weeks the experiment of the 

 student went on, and during it the beetles bviried live frogs, two 

 grasshoppers, ionr birds and a mole. These grave-diggers lay 

 their eggs in dead flesh, and then bury the flesh. Their larvae, 

 hatching out under ground, feed on the carrion provided by their 

 thoughtful parents till they are ready, as full-fledged beetles, to 

 come up out of the earth. Then they, too, take up the grave- 

 digging trade. — Philadelphia Record. 



