416 SUPrLEMENT 



announces the places which they inhabit, and the substances 

 on which they feed. They answer the purpose, like a mul- 

 titude of other insects, of consuming rotten flesh, and ex- 

 crementitious matters, which would otherwise infect the 

 atmosphere. Instinct, always in accord with organization, 

 causes them to seek with eagerness the dead bodies of little 

 animals, for the purposes of food. It is a truly interesting 

 spectacle to see them attracted from a considerable distance 

 by a cadaverous odour, associating together in their enter- 

 prize, combining their efibrts, and peaceably enjoying the 

 fruits of their labours. Thus, scarcely does the corruption 

 of the dead body of a mouse or a mole begin to be percep- 

 tible, than they flock to the place in greater or less numbers, 

 and hollow the earth with much activity around, underneath 

 the animal, which sinks into it insensibly, and without our 

 seeing the operators, the work is finished before our eyes, 

 and the whole carcase disappears. Four or five of those 

 insects can bury in this manner a mole in the space of four- 

 and-twenty hours. Then, sheltered from fear and danger, 

 they enter the body which they have interred, and feast 

 upon it at their leisure. It is also in these carcases that 

 the females deposit their eggs, and there that larvae which 

 proceed from them are destined to live. 



But this subject is so very interesting that we cannot thus 

 briefly dismiss it without a more detailed notice — and we 

 gladly avail ourselves of the account of this curious pheno- 

 menon, given by Mr. Kirby, nor shall we do the author 

 the injury of altering his language. He says, 



" These beetles, however, in point of industry, must yield 

 the palm to one ( Necrophorus vespiilo), whose singular his- 

 tory was first detailed by M. Gleditsh in the Acts of the 

 Berlin Society for 1752. He begins by informing us that 

 he had often remarked that dead moles, when laid upon the 

 ground, especially if upon loose earth, were almost sure to 



