The Burying-Beetles: Experiments 



the dead animal through them is another mat- 

 ter: the meshes of the net are too close to 

 give it passage. Will the grave-digger find 

 himself helpless against such an obstacle, 

 which must be an extremely common one? 

 That could not be. 



Exposed to this or that habitual impedi- 

 ment in the exercise of its calling, the ani- 

 mal is always equipped accordingly; other- 

 wise its profession would be impracticable. 

 No end is attained without the necessary 

 means and aptitudes. Besides that of the 

 excavator, the Necrophorus certainly pos- 

 sesses another art: the art of breaking the 

 cables, the roots, the stolons, the slender 

 rhizomes which check the body's descent into 

 the grave. To the work of the shovel and 

 the pick must be added that of the shears. 

 All this is perfectly logical and may be clearly 

 foreseen. Nevertheless, let us call in experi- 

 ment, the best of witnesses. 



I borrow from the kitchen-range an iron 

 trivet whose legs will supply a solid founda- 

 tion for the engine which I am devising. 

 This is a coarse network made of strips of 

 raffia, a fairly accurate imitation of that of 

 the couch-grass. The very irregular meshes 

 are nowhere wide enough to admit of the 

 passage of the creature to be buried, which 

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