EURYING BEETLES. 87 



be known by the fact tliat the antennas have ten joints, and a 

 very distinct and rounded club. Tlunr wings are very hirge 

 and powerful, as is needful for insects wliose food is necessarily 

 scattered over a very wide area. It is worthy of notice that, 

 wlien they are flying, their elytra are carried very upright, so 

 that their backs approach quite closely to each other. 



The first genus of the SilphidsB is Necrophorus, a word 

 which signifies ' carrion-bearer,' in allusion to the singular 

 habits possessed by all the Beetles of this genus. The}'' do not 

 content themselves with merely eating their food, but they 

 bury it, and then lay their eggs in it, so that it serves not only 

 as a feast for themselves, but as a provision for their future 

 young. In consequence of this habit, they go by the popular 

 name of Burying, or Sexton Beetles. It is a very appropriate 

 name, for there is scarcely any dead animal or portion of an 

 animal which they will not contrive to bury; and if it be too 

 large for one Beetle, several others will take a share in the 

 work. If the reader will refer to Plate IV., he will see that a 

 number of these Beetles are engaged in burying a dead bird. 



They will bury birds, frogs, rabbits, p-eces of meat, or any- 

 thing of a similar kind, and do it with wonderful rapidity ; thus 

 rendering a doubly important service, by removing the 

 decaying animal matter from the surface of the earth, and 

 helping to fertilise the ground by burying it below the sur- 

 face. The manner in which these Beetles execute so difficult 

 a task is admirably told by Mr. E. Newman, in his ' Letters of 

 Rusticus :' — 



' Two days after, I was again in Grodbold's ; and seeing the 

 bullfinch lie where he had been left, I lifted him up by ihe 

 leg, intending to make a present of him to a fine colony of 

 ants established, a little further on, in the days of Greneral 

 Oglethorpe, and which had maintained their station ever since. 

 They had made many a pretty skeleton for me, and I intended 

 to add that of a bullfinch to the store; but the buzz of a Beetle 

 round my head caught ray ear. He flew smack against the bull- 

 finch, which i was holding up by the leg, and fell at my feet. 

 I knew that the gentleman was a Burying Beetle; and as I put 

 the bird down for him, he soon found it, mounted upon it, and, 

 after much examination, opened out his wing-cases and flew 

 away. 1 will profit by his absence to tell you a bit of his history 



