CHAPTEE XXXV. 



Strength of Insects Necrophorus Vespillo, or Burying-Beetle Foetid smell of How Willie 

 Grimmond earned an Honest Penny in Glencoe. 



THE strength of insects, proportionably to their weight and size, 

 was probably the first characteristic in the minor world to arrest 

 the attention and call forth the admiration of entomologists; and soon 

 afterwards, we may believe, the ingenuity, patience, and perseverance 

 displayed by these pigmies in dealing with any self-imposed piece 

 of labour, must have made the intelligent observer feel and 

 acknowledge, even if he could not repeat and had never heard of 

 the mad-wise Hamlet's dictum, that 



" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 

 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 



Take an example of something wonderful in insect life, as it chanced 

 to come under our notice a few days ago [September 1872]. We 

 were raking hay raking hay, too, after others had raked the same 

 ground shortly before us, for we are most particular that, both for 

 the look of the thing, as well as for the profit, not a wisp, not a 

 strawlet shall be left upon the ground when, as we raked, we came 

 across a dead mole. No rare or wonderful thing, the reader may 

 exclaim, but rare enough when you come to think of it, and wonderful 

 enough, too, to attract the attention of any one even less observant 

 of natural history than Nether Lochaber. Lying on its side was 

 the mole, already half-hidden by the swiftly growing aftermath. 

 Touching it with the corner of our rake, and moving it slightly, 

 we got a glimpse of a yellow-banded beetle busy underneath ; and 



