218 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



If, as so often happens during the course of 

 a country ramble, we should come upon the 

 dead body of some small bird or animal, and 

 pause for a moment to look regretfully upon the 

 once graceful little form, now rendered rigid and 

 unsightly by the grim hands of death and decay, 

 we may be startled to see a slight movement of 

 the stiff body, as if invisible hands were drawing 

 it downwards into the earth. And, indeed, tiny 

 hands are at work; Nature's sextons are busy 

 labouring to bury beneath the soil the little 

 corpse. Turning over the body gently, we find 

 that it is already resting in a freshly excavated 

 hollow in the ground, and that beneath it are 

 several black and orange beetles who are busy 

 scraping, burrowing, and clearing away the 

 earth beneath the dead creature, so as gradually 

 to make a little hole or grave. Had we arrived 

 on the scene shortly after the death of the little 

 animal, we should have seen the Sexton Beetles 

 commence their operations by first loosening the 

 soil at the sides of the body, and then set 

 to work excavating the ground beneath, throw- 

 ing out the soil with their strong legs until the 

 dead animal sinks below the surface and is 

 covered with the earth which has accumulated 

 around the margin of the pit. They work very 

 hard at their digging, and if undisturbed continue 

 their labours until the body is safely buried. On 

 one occasion I had an opportunity of watching 

 these beetles at work upon the body of a mole, 

 which they successfully interred after a little 

 over twenty-six hours of, so far as I could observe 

 without disturbing them, unceasing labour. 





