CARRION-FEEDING BEETLES. 219 



Carrion feeding beetles, like other larger carrion-feeders, 

 though invaluable in the service they render, are themselves 

 decidedly unpleasant, owing to their extremely strong and 

 disgusting scent. The hands will smell for hours, and the 

 coat for days, after being in contact with them, unless, 

 indeed, they happen to have been fasting for some time 

 from their highly-seasoned food, when they are quite free 

 from smell. 



Many of the carrion-feeders prey upon the living, as 

 well as the dead, and, as before said, eat decayed fungi and 

 other vegetable matter. Some lie in wait on the banks of 

 rivers, and devour the dead dogs, cats, &c., thrown up by 

 the water, as well as small mollusks, alive or dead. They will, 

 in fact, clean your shells and skeletons as well as the ants ; 

 but, with all their usefulness, grievous are the complaints 

 made against some of the race, especially those known as- 

 skin-eaters (Dermestes). 



These render infinite service, as we are assured, but, 

 at the same time, they and their minute grubs will entirely 

 destroy your books, eat up your furs and your natural- 

 history collections, besides invading your larder, and feasting 

 upon the dried meat, bacon, &c. So injurious were they 

 some years ago in the large skin warehouses in London 

 that a reward of ^20,000 was offered, and offered in vain, 

 to any one who could devise effectual means of preventing 

 their ravages. They are commonly found in the bodies of 

 moles stuck up in the fields to dry, and will consume not 

 only the flesh but the skeleton ; nothing, in fact, comes 

 amiss to them, for they will devour horns, hoofs, and leather, 

 even in the form of old shoes. (Fig. 44.) 



