CARRION BEETLES. 75 



contrive to bury ; and if it be too large for one Beetle, 

 several others will take a share in the work. 



They will bury birds, frogs, rabbits, pieces of meat, 

 or anything of a similar kind, and do it with wonder- 

 ful rapidity ; thus rendering a doubly important 

 service, by removing the decaying animal matter from 

 the surface of the earth, and helping to fertilise the 

 ground by burying it below the surface. The manner 

 in which these Beetles execute so difficult a task is 

 admirably told by Mr. E. Newman, in his ' Letters of 

 Rusticus : ' 



' Two days after, I was again in Godbold's ; and 

 seeing the bullfinch lie where he had been left, I lifted 

 him up by the leg, intending to make a present of 

 him to a fine colony of ants established, a little further 

 on, in the days of General Oglethorpe, and which had 

 maintained their station ever since. They had made 

 many a pretty skeleton for me, and I intended to add 

 that of a bullfinch to the store ; but the buzz of a 

 Beetle round my head caught my ear. He flew 

 smack against the bullfinch, which I was holding up 

 by the leg, and fell at my feet. I knew that the 

 gentleman was a Burying Beetle ; and as I put the 

 bird down for him, he soon found it, mounted upon it, 

 and, after much examination, opened out his wing- 

 cases and flew away. I will profit by his absence to 

 tell you a bit of his history. 



' The Burying Beetle is about an inch in length ; 

 he is black, with two bands across his back of a 

 bright-orange colour : these bands are formed by two 

 blotches of that colour on each of the wing-cases. He 

 is a disgusting creature though in such a gay dress, 



