78 SHARP EYES 



rove-beetle, as he is also called, is one of the tribe of 

 carrion and scavenger beetles. His glistening, agile, 

 and comical presence may be seen about barn -yard 

 compost and other decaying refuse upon which he 

 seems to alight in the semblance of a bee or wasp r 

 when his gauze wings suddenly vanish as if they had 

 dissolved into air. 



What is the hocus-pocus? Here comes one of the 

 insects buzzing yonder over the grass. Keep your eye 

 intently fixed upon him. Now he alights near by, and, 

 quick as a flash, up goes the agile tail, and with its 

 tip the large filmy wings are folded and tucked away 

 beneath their tiny pair of wing- covers in a twinkling. 



The identity of this queer devil's horse would natur- 



