SAMOUELLE S 



especially upon loose earth, were almost sure to dis- 

 appear in the course of two or three days, often in 

 twelve hours. To ascertain the cause, he placed a 

 mole upon one of the beds in his garden. It had 

 vanished by the third morning ; and on digging 

 where it had been lain, he found it buried to the 

 depth of three inches, and under it four beetles 

 which seemed to have been the agents in this singu- 

 lar inhumation. Not perceiving any thing particular 

 in the mole, he buried it again ; and on examining 

 it at the end of six days he found it swarming with 

 maggots apparently the issue of the beetles, which 

 31. Gleditsch now actually concluded had buried the 

 carcase for the food of their future young. To de- 

 termine these points more clearly, he put four of 

 these insects into a glass vessel half rilled with earth 

 and properly secured, and upon the surface of the. 

 earth two frogs. In less than twelve hours one of 

 the frogs was interred by two of the beetles : the 

 other two ran about the whole day as if busied in 

 measuring the dimensions of the remaining corpse, 

 which on the third day was also found buried. He 

 then introduced a dead linnet. A pair of the beetles 

 were soon engaged upon the bird. 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 sec the efforts which the beetles made 

 by dragging at the feathers of the bird from below to 

 pull it into its grave. The male having driven the 

 female away continued the work alone for rive hours. 

 He lifted up the bird, changed its place, turned it 

 and arranged it in the grave, and from time to time 

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