172 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



The time occupied in the transaction necessarily varies, accord- 

 ing to the size of the buried object and the condition of the bee- 

 tle ; but on the average an ordinary finch, or a mouse, can be bur- 

 ied in the course of a day. When the task is completed, a num- 

 ber of eggs are laid upon the buried animal, and then the beetles 

 emerge, cover it with earth, and then fly away. In some cases 

 they will bury a whole series of corpses ; and in the well-known 

 experiments of M. Gleiditsch, four beetles buried, in a small piece 

 of earth, four frogs, three birds, two fishes, one mole, two grass- 

 hoppers, the entrails of a fish, and two pieces of meat. And so 

 strong and persevering are these insects, that a single beetle suc- 

 ceeded in burying a mole in two days. Now the mole is at least 

 forty times as large as the beetle, so that we can estimate the 

 strength and perseverance of the beetle by calculating the labor 

 which would be necessary for a man to inter, in two days, an an- 

 imal forty times as large as himself. 



Perhaps the reader may remember a curious analogy between 

 the mode of sepulture employed by these beetles, and the mode 

 of sinking wells in sandy soil. Instead of digging a hole, and 

 then building a brick lining to it, a circular tower is first built, 

 and then, by scraping away the sand from within, the workmen 

 cause it to sink into the ground. When it has sunk sufficiently, 

 some twelve or fourteen feet are added, and the sand again scraped 

 out ; and in this manner the brick tube sinks gradually down, and 

 becomes the lining of the well. 



The beetle just mentioned conveys into its burrow the whole 

 of the substance on which the grub is intended to feed ; but 

 those which we now shall examine select only a portion for that 

 purpose. There is a very large tribe of beetles, of which the 

 British type is the common Dor Beetle {Oeotrupes vulgaris), 

 sometimes called the Watchman, or Clock, whose heavy hum 

 drones upon the ear in the evening, as the 



"Beetle wheels his drowsy flight," 



and whose hard and notched head occasionally strikes against the 

 face with a violence less agreeable to the man than to the insect, 

 the latter being quite undisturbed by the shock. 



Catch one of these beetles, and examine the wondrous beauty 

 of its color, how its polished surface gleams as if made of bur- 

 nished steel, pure and bright as armor just out of the smith's 



