BURYING-BEETLES: EXPERIMENTS 77 



to me from that refuge, furnished with a truss of straw, 

 in which official charity gives the hospitality of a day to 

 the beggar wandering over the face of the fertile earth ; 

 from that municipal hostel whence one inevitably emerges 

 verminous. O Reaumur, who used to invite marquises 

 to see your caterpillars change their skins, what would 

 you have said of a future disciple conversant with such 

 wretchedness as this? Perhaps it is well that we should 

 not be ignorant of it, so that we may take compassion on 

 the sufferings of beasts. 



The Mouse so greatly desired is mine. I place her 

 upon the center of the brick. The grave-diggers under 

 the wire cover are now seven in number, of whom three 

 are females. All have gone to earth : some are inactive, 

 close to the surface; the rest are busy in their crypts. 

 The presence of the fresh corpse is promptly perceived. 

 About seven o'clock in the morning, three Necrophori 

 hurry up, two males and a female. They slip under the 

 Mouse, who moves in jerks, a sign of the efforts of the 

 burying-party. An attempt is made to dig into the layer 

 of sand which hides the brick, so that a bank of sand 

 accumulates about the body. 



For a couple of hours the jerks continue without re- 

 sults. I profit by the circumstance to investigate the 

 manner in which the work is performed. The bare 

 brick allows me to see what the excavated soil concealed 

 from me. If it is necessary to move the body, the Beetle 

 turns over; with his six claws he grips the hair of the 

 dead animal, props himself upon his back and pushes, 

 making a lever of his head and the tip of his abdomen. 



