THE BUBYING BEETLE. 119 



love of labour, nor yet in love of self, but is, in fact, like the 

 mainspring of various other insect actions, of a parental cha- 

 racter. Its eggs being first committed to the carcase, the 

 beetle then proceeds to commit that to the earth, in order that, 

 thus protected from predatory birds and foxes, it may afford 

 provision for her young, as soon as, in the shape of larvae, 

 they come into existence. This most curious practice of in- 

 stinctive sagacity was first noticed by a foreign naturalist, M. 

 Gleditsch, who, having observed the mysterious disappearance 

 of moles, laid upon the beds in his garden, discovered that 

 beetles were the agents of their inhumation, effected for the 

 purpose above named. To watch their proceedings more nar- 

 rowly, he put four of these insect grave-diggers into a glass 

 vessel, half filled with earth, on the surface of which were 

 laid two dead frogs. Of these, one was interred in less than 

 twelve hours the other on the third day. He then intro- 

 duced a dead linnet, on which the beetles were speedily en- 

 gaged. They began their operations by pushing out the earth 

 from under the body, so as to form a cavity for its reception : 

 and it was curious to see the efforts which they made, by 

 dragging from below at the feathers of the bird, to pull it 

 into its grave. The male, having driven the female away, 

 continued to work alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, 

 changed its place, turned and arranged it in its grave, from 

 time to time coming out of the hole, mounting on the carcase, 

 treading it underfoot, and then again retiring below to draw 



