224 THE WORLD'S LUMBER ROOM. 



There is no English Scarabreus, but we have many 

 beetles which are similarly useful, some being especially 

 plentiful on turnpike roads, and others in pasture fields. 

 The earth-borers, as one large family of various species is 

 called, dig with their fore-legs, which are especially adapted 

 for the purpose, being powerful and notched. 



Though hardly to be seen in hot, dry weather, the 

 rain has no sooner softened the ground sufficiently for 

 their operations than they appear in swarms, and work with 

 astonishing rapidity, both clearing away what is offensive 

 to sight and smell, and turning it to account as manure 

 for the fields, thus doing a double service, which is of the 

 greatest value. 



Of all the English species not one is more useful and 

 active than the heavy, unwieldy Dumble Dor, Clock, or 

 Flying Watchman, which is often to be seen lying help- 

 lessly on its back. The Dor is usually of a glossy violet 

 or blue-black, sometimes greenish-black, and sometimes 

 quite black ; but, whatever its colour, it is always glossy, 

 and always clean, in spite of the very unclean nature of 

 its work, in which, as in all other respects, it may be con- 

 sidered a model scavenger, though how it can escape 

 unsoiled is a mystery. 



It is sometimes found in decaying fungi, but it is usually 

 attendant on cows, and Mr. Wood mentions a pasture field 

 which was entirely cleaned by it in the course of three or 

 four days, the ground being literally riddled with as many as 

 forty or fifty burrows in each square foot. 



Unlike the Scarabaeus, the Dumble Dor has no need to 

 spend time and strength in search for a convenient spot 



