THE BURYING-BEETLE. 213 



ing in all directions across the field, with their fingers tightly 

 compressing their nostrils, and vowing that they would have no 

 more to do with dead moles or burying-beetles, be they ever so 

 brightly banded or interesting from papa's point of view. A 

 message now came forth that tea was ready ; but no tea could we 

 drink, nor bread could we handle, on account of the horrible smell 

 that still adhered to our fingers and palm. Washing with soap and 

 water had no effect upon it, for it seemed to have instantly and 

 thoroughly penetrated and permeated skin, flesh, and muscle, and 

 to have reached and lodged in the very bone itself, whence it re- 

 fused to be extirpated. It was only late at night, sitting by a 

 briny rock-pool, and using the viscous clay of the beach after the 

 manner of soap, that we managed to get quit of the foul odour ; 

 and even after a final washing with hot water and scented soap, as 

 we retired for the night, we still persuaded ourselves that the 

 loathsome smell had not altogether departed. All the carrion 

 beetles, without exception, and most of the ground beetles proper, 

 have always more or less of a disagreeable, sickening smell about 

 them, but in this respect the burying-beetle is worse than all the 

 rest put together ; seeming to have centered in his own person a 

 combination of the essences of all possible stenches in their worst 

 and foulest form. In the case of the Vespillo, it is to be noted 

 that the foetid smell, though always there, and easily perceptible, is 

 bearable enough while the animal is quiescent and undisturbed, and 

 you do not approach it too closely. Tease it, however, in any way ; 

 touch it with the point of a switch, or take it up, as we foolishly 

 did, in your hand, and the stench, emitted probably in self-defence, 

 as in the case of the skunk and polecat, is of all others the most 

 abominable in itself, and the most difficult to get rid of. Next 

 mferning, then, on visiting the mole, as proposed, we found it com- 

 pletely buried, with at least half an inch depth of earth neatly 

 shovelled over it, with a slight ridge in the centre, and sloping 



