72 



Field-Labourers 



them ; and one foreign species will bury a snake in a 

 few hours. 



Burying beetles of the many carrion-feeding species 

 abound especially in temperate climates, for there it is 

 that there is most work for them to do, since there 

 dead bodies decay but slowly. In those parts of the 

 tropics where great heat is combined with extreme 

 dryness — as, for instance, on the Pampas of South 

 America or in the African deserts — a body is dried up 

 so quickly that it can hardly be said to decay at all. 

 A dead horse can even be used as fuel, and there the 

 carrion-feeders are comparatively few. They are little 

 needed as scavengers, and, unless covered up imme- 

 diately, the dead body of any small animal such as 

 they could bury would supply little food for their 

 f^rubs. 



