194 INSECTS AT iio:\rE. 



scent, could not believe me, and made themselves rather merry 

 on the subject. In the course of the day, however, one of the 

 same party, a young lady, was passing by the same place, and 

 carried off a fine Musk Beetle in her hair. 



The scent of this insect is said to be more powerful'in the 

 breeding season than at any other time of the year, and 

 stronger in the female than in the male. This is very likely 

 to be the case, and will serve to explain the mysterious manner 

 in which many night-flying insects contrive to find their mates 

 in the hours of darkness. In the present instance, the odour 

 hrppens to be one of which our senses are cognisant ; but it 

 may well be that other insects, though to our nostrils absolutely 

 scentless, may yet emit an odour which is as evident to them as 

 is that of the Musk Beetle to us. The scent of this insect is as 

 enduring as it is powerful, and, if the Beetle be held with a 

 gloved hand, or wrapped in a handkerchief, i-t will impart either 

 to the kid or cambric its peculiar odour, which will last for a 

 very long time. From a series of experiments made some few 

 years ago, I have come to the conclusion that the Musk Beetle 

 can emit or retain its odour at pleasure as long as it is in full 

 health, but that when the insect is weak, or in a dying state, it 

 is unable to retain the scent. 



The Musk Beetle is one of the Beetles which are popularly 

 called Squeakers, on account of the sound which they are 

 capable of producing, and which somewhat resembles the squeak 

 of a bat. If the reader will watch one of these insects while 

 producing the sound in question, he will find that it moves its 

 head smartly up and down, so as to cause the sound by the 

 friction of one part of the hard surface against another. If tlie 

 Beetle be held in the hand, the whole body is perceived to 

 quiver with the exertion. 



Wherever willow-trees are to be found abundantly, there the 

 Musk Beetle is sure to be, because it feeds on the interior of 

 that tree while in the larval state. The ground on which my 

 house stands being very high, and the soil being gravel, I was 

 very much surprised at perceiving the Musk Beetle which has 

 just been mentioned, thinking that no mllow-trees were near. 

 However, after a while, I came upon some of these trees, at a 

 distance of some 300 yards, growing on the banks of a Lttle 

 stream that ran in the valley below. Sometimes a t/ee i:} 



