ORDER I. COLEOPTERA. 73 



portion of the insect tribes, being indefatigable in tbeir 

 labours among putrifying substances, and it needs but 

 little consideration to enable us to realize the vast impor- 

 tance of these labours. Rapidly as the chemical process of 

 decomposition follows upon the death of either animals or 

 vegetables, it seldom in nature outstrips the generation 

 of agents which more than neutralize the attendant evils ; 

 agents which in fact turn this decomposition to account 

 under that law of creation which forbids all waste, and 

 exhibits the spectacle of life and enjoyment arising out of 

 death and decay. 



To this it is no objection that all the evils which can 

 arise from decay and putrefaction are to be met with 

 in cities and other congregations of men, and that nature 

 provides no means adequate to the demand in such 

 cases. Where men congregate and cause these evils, 

 there human labour is the provided remedy. Nature is 

 no longer the sole agent, art takes her share of responsi- 

 bility ; and, as in the supply of food, so in other works 

 necessary to the wellbeing of man, man depends much 

 upon his own exertions. In nature we find no accumu- 

 lations of filth, no masses of corruption neglected; we 

 may spend hours nay, days in the woods and on the 

 heaths and find nothing to distress the eye ; while, even 

 in the overcrowded haunts of men, myriads of little living 

 creatures are at work, giving no inconsiderable help in 

 setting to rights what he has set to wrongs. 



The colouring of the genus Necrophorus is likely to 

 attract attention. The elytra are marked with broad 

 alternate bands or patches of orange and black, but the 

 insect is heavily formed, and of unattractive appearance. 

 The Silphffi (another genus of the burying beetles) are 

 very flat insects, of an oval outline and dusky colouring, 



