Field-Laborers 53 



eggs, for the grubs when hatched Hve upon this food; but 

 they at the same time provide a suitable bed for grass- 

 seeds, which is quickly taken possession of. 



The Dumble Dor beetle, or Flying Watchman, the 

 slow, hump-backed, bluish black creature, which is often 

 found lying on its back, goes to work in a different way, 

 and in spite of its slow movements gets through what is 

 really an amazing amount of work for its size. We all 

 know it probably, though we may not all have watched its 

 operations. It, too, is an attendant upon cattle, and 

 works so expeditiously and in such large numbers as to 

 clean a meadow tenanted by cows in three or four days. 

 Instead of bringing up earth to cover the droppings, it 

 removes them altogether, pellet by pellet. It digs its 

 way down between the grass-roots, carrying with it as 

 much as it can to a hole a foot deep, where it lays one 

 egg; after which it crawls up again for more, over and 

 over again, making many journeys. As many as forty or 

 fifty burrows have been counted in one square foot. 



Burying beetles, of one species or other, are every- 

 where plentiful, so plentiful indeed that we very seldom 

 meet with the dead bodies of bird, mouse, or mole, or any 

 other animal, in our walks in field or wood. All have 

 been cleared away and buried several inches, sometimes 

 nearly a foot, underground, where they benefit the soil, 

 besides providing food for the beetle's family — this latter 

 being of course the only object which the beetle has in 

 view. They work sometimes singly, sometimes in com- 

 pany, scraping the earth away from beneath the carcass 

 with their forelegs, and then carefully covering it up; 

 after which they burrow down and lay their eggs. Four 

 beetles which were kept and watched for fifty days, buried 



