The Burying-Beetles: The Burial 



rosemary-bushes, the strawberry-trees and 

 the lavender-beds. 



Now it only remained to wait and to ex- 

 amine, several times a day, the under-side of 

 my little corpses, a disgusting task which 

 any one would avoid whose veins were not 

 filled with the sacred fire of enthusiasm. 

 Only little Paul, of all the household, lent 

 me the aid of his nimble hand to seize the 

 fugitives. I have already said that the en- 

 tomologist needs simplicity of mind. In this 

 important business of the Necrophori, my 

 assistants were a small boy and an illiterate. 



Little Paul's visits alternating with mine, 

 we had not long to wait. The four winds 

 of heaven bore forth in all directions the 

 odour of the carrion; and the undertakers 

 hurried up, so that the experiments, begun 

 with four subjects, were continued with four- 

 teen, a number not attained during the whole 

 of my previous searches, which were unpre- 

 meditated and in which no bait was used as 

 decoy. My trapper's ruse was completely 

 successful. 



Before I report the results obtained in 

 the cage, let us stop for a moment to con- 

 sider the normal conditions of the labours 

 that fall to the lot of the Necrophori. The 

 Beetle does not select his head of game, 

 303 



