480 THE BURYING SYLPH. 



ever he pleased. At the end of this time one of them died ; and SOOD 

 afterwards the other gnawed its way out arid escaped 



This insect, which is the real Death-watch of the vulgar^ emphati- 

 cally so called, must not be confounded with a wingless insect, not 

 much unlike a louse, which makes a ticking noise like a watch, but 

 which, instead of beating at intervals, continues its noise for a 

 considerable length of time without intermission. The latter belongs 

 to a tribe very different from this: it is the Termes Pulsatorium of 

 Linnaeus, and will be hereafter described. 



OF THE SILPE^E, OR CARKION BEETLES. 



THESE insects are chiefly found, both in a perfect and larvae state, 

 in the half-decayed and putrid bodies of animals. Their antennae are 

 clavate, and the club is perfoliate. The elytra or wing-cases are 

 margined ; and the head is prominent. The thorax is somewhat 

 flattened, and also margined. 



THE BURYING SYLPH. 



The best account that I have seen of the habits and economy of 

 these interesting insects, is that written by M. Gleditsch, a well 

 known writer on natural history. This gentleman had, at different 

 times, observed, that Moles which had been left upon the ground 

 after they had been killed, very unaccountably disappeared. Ke 

 therefore was determined, if possible, to ascertain by experiment, 

 what could be the cause of this singular occurrence. 



On the twenty-fifth of May, he accordingly obtained a dead mole, 

 which he placed on the moist, soft earth of his garden, and in two days 

 he found it sunk to the depth of four fingers 7 breadth into the earth : it 

 was in the same position in which he had placed it, and its grave cor- 

 responded exactly with the length and breadth of its body. The day 

 following this grave was half filled up ; and he cautiously drew out 

 the mole, (which exhaled a horrible stench,) and found, directly under 

 it, little holes, in which, were four Beetles of the present species. 

 Discovering at this time, nothing but these Beetles, he put them into 

 the hollow, and they quickly hid themselves among the earth. He 

 then replaced the mole as he found it, and, having spread a little soft 

 earth over it, left it without looking at it again for the space of six 

 days. On the twelfth of June he again took up the same carcass, which 

 he found in the highest state of corruption, swarming with small, thick, 

 whitish worms, that appeared to be the family of the Beetles. These 

 circumstances induced him to suppose that it was the Beetles that had 

 thus buried the mole, and that they had done this for the sake of 

 lodging in it their offspring. 



Mr. G. then took a glass vessel, and half filled it with moist earth 

 into this he put the four Beetles with their young-ones, and they im- 



