BURYING-BEETLES: EXPERIMENTS 89 



ment which has ever been recorded to the credit of the 

 insect. 



This, for one who is considering the problem of in- 

 stinct, is an exciting moment. But let us beware of 

 forming conclusions as yet; we might be in too great a 

 hurry. Let us ask ourselves first whether the fall of the 

 stake was intentional or fortuitous. Did the Necrophori 

 lay it bare with the express intention of causing it to 

 fall ? Or did they, on the contrary, dig at its base solely 

 in order to bury that part of the mole which lay on the 

 ground? That is the question, which, for the rest, is 

 very easy to answer. 



The experiment is repeated; but this time the gibbet 

 is slanting and the Mole, hanging in a vertical position, 

 touches the ground at a couple of inches from the base 

 of the gibbet. Under these conditions absolutely no at- 

 tempt is made to overthrow the latter. Not the least 

 scrape of a claw is delivered at the foot of the gibbet. 

 The entire work of excavation is accomplished at a dis- 

 tance, under the body, whose shoulders are lying on the 

 ground. There — and there only — a hole is dug to re- 

 ceive the free portion of the body, the part accessible to 

 the sextons. 



A difference of an inch in the position of the suspended 

 animal annihilates the famous legend. Even so, many a 

 time, the most elementary sieve, handled with a little 

 logic, is enough to winnow the confused mass of affirma- 

 tions and to release the good grain of truth. 



Yet another shake of the sieve. The gibbet is oblique 



