332 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



sinks into its grave ; the little ridge of mould, which 

 by this time has .been thrown out round the exca- 

 vation, is then neatly levelled over the defunct, and 

 the interment is complete. In a few days afterwards, 

 the individual, on whose remains so much patient toil 

 has been bestowed, is swarming with the young larvae 

 of the burying beetle. Other species of this family 

 which we have taken here in decomposing animal 

 matter, are the Oiceoptoma thoracica, Silpha obscura, 

 Nitidula bi-pustulata and Nitidula discoidea. Under 

 bark, in rotten wood and in fungi, we meet with 

 Micropeplus porcatus, Mycetophagus quadri-pustulatus 

 and Mycetophagus atomarius. 



Dermestes lardarius, as may be inferred from its 

 specific name, yielding to the temptation of bacon in 

 our drying lofts, visits our houses in great numbers, 

 and appears to enjoy the food of its choice when the 

 latter is in that stage of flavour locally known as 

 " hammy." Dermestes murinus may frequently be 

 shaken out of the bodies of the dead moles that are 

 so conspicuously gibbeted on the twigs of bushes and 

 trees near the scene of their capture. Anthrenus 

 Museorum seems to prefer the dried skins of stuffed 

 birds and other animals, when they have not been 

 made sufficiently ungrateful to its palate by the Taxi- 

 dermist, not even despising the specimens in our 

 Entomological collections. Byrrhtis pilula, so called 

 from its singular habit, when alarmed, of packing its 

 legs and antennae so closely to its body as to resemble 

 anything but a living insect, and thus remaining mo- 

 tionless till the danger that threatened it is passed, is 

 common enough on our dusty and sandy highways 

 and pathways. The dung of animals again, in our 

 meadows and pastures, supplies us with Onthophilus 

 striatus and many species of Hister. 



Almost everyone is familiar with the large Stag 

 Beetle (Lucanus Cervus), sometimes two inches long. 

 This insect is armed with such formidable protruding 



