70 Field-Labourers 



the largest that live on the shore, whose deep tunnels 

 are larger than rabbit-burrows, and are lined with 

 coco-nut fibre. 



Beetles, again, are most useful workers, almost all 

 the world over, and on some of the wild hill slopes of 

 Ireland all the patches of good grass are said to be 

 their work. Cows are kept on these wastes, and are 

 attended by numbers of large beetles. Three or four 

 of these together set to work at a patch of cow-dung, 

 burrowing into the soil beneath, and bringing up little 

 heaps of clay until they have covered it three or four 

 inches deep. Their object, no doubt, is to make a 

 suitable place in which to lay their eggs, for the grubs 

 when hatched live upon this food ; but they at the 

 same time provide a suitable bed for grass-seeds, which 

 is quickly taken possession of 



The Dumble Dor beetle, or Flying Watchman, the 

 slow, hump-backed, bluish-black creature, which is 

 often found lying on its back, goes to work in a 

 different way, and in spite of its slow movements gets 

 through what is really an amazing amount of work for 

 its size. We all know it probably, though we may not 

 all have watched its operations. It, too, is an attendant 

 upon cattle, and works so expeditiously and in such 

 large numbers as to clean a meadow tenanted by cows 

 in three or four days. Instead of bringing up earth to 

 cover the droppings, it removes them altogether, pellet 

 by pellet. It digs its way down between the grass- 

 roots, carrying with it as much as it can to a hole a 

 foot deep, where it lays one egg ; after which it crawls 

 up again for more, over and over again, making many 

 journeys. As many as forty or fifty burrows have been 

 counted in one square foot. 



