The Burying-Beetles: Experiments 



but under more difficult conditions, the tac- 

 tics employed when it was necessary to dis- 

 place the unfavourably situated body: the 

 two collaborators slip between the Mouse 

 and the stake and, taking a grip of the twig 

 and exerting a leverage with their backs, 

 they jerk and shake the corpse, which sways, 

 twirls about, swings away from the stake and 

 swings back again. All the morning is 

 passed in vain attempts, interrupted by ex- 

 plorations on the animal's body. 



In the afternoon, the cause of the check 

 is at last recognized; not very clearly, for 

 the two obstinate gallow-robbers first attack 

 the Mouse's hind-legs, a little way below the 

 strap. They strip them bare, flay them and 

 cut away the flesh about the foot. They 

 have reached the bone, when one of them 

 finds the string of raffia beneath his mandi- 

 bles. This, to him, is a familiar thing, rep- 

 resenting the grass-thread so frequent in 

 burials in turfy soil. Tenaciously the shears 

 gnaw at the bond; the fibrous fetter is 

 broken; and the Mouse falls, to be buried 

 soon after. 



If it stood alone, this breaking of the sus- 

 pending tie would be a magnificent perform- 

 ance; but considered in connection with the 

 sum of the Beetle's customary labours it 

 339 



