SHEATH-WINGED INSECIS. 359 



epecies ; discovering at this time nothing but these beetles, he put 

 them into the hollow, and they speedily hid themselves in the 

 earth; he then replaced the mole where he found it; he placed a 

 little soft earth over it, and left it, without looking at it for the 

 space of six days. On the 12th of June he again took up the 

 same carcass, which he found in the highest state of corruption, 

 swarming with small, thick, whitish worms, which appeared evi- 

 dently to be the family of the beetles. These circumstances in- 

 duced him to believe that it was the beetles which had thus buried 

 the molej and that they had done this for the sake of a lodging 

 for their offspring. 



This same philosopher found, that in the course of fifty 

 days, four beetles interred the bodies of four frogs, three small 

 birds, two grasshoppers, and one mole, besides the entrails of a fish 

 and two small pieces of the lungs of an ox. 



The Pellet Beetle This beetle is all over of a dusky 



black, rounder than those animals are generally found to be, and 

 so strong, though not much larger than the common black beetle, 

 that if one of them be put under a brass candlestick, it will cause 

 it to move backwards and forwards, as if it were by an invisible 

 hand, to the admiration of those who are not accustomed to the 

 sight; but this strength is given it for much more useful purposes 

 than those of exciting human curiosity, for there is no creature 

 more laborious, either in seeking subsistence, or in. providing a 

 proper retreat for its young. They are endowed with sagacity to 

 discover subsistence, by their excellent smelling, which directs 

 them in flights to excrements just fallen from xoMa. or beast, on 

 which they instantly drop, and fall unanimously to work in form- 

 ing round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of which they lay 

 an egg. These pellets, in September, they convey three feet deep 

 in the earth, where they lie till the approach of spring ; when the 

 eggs are hatched the nests burst, and the insects find their way 

 out of the earth. Thcj assist each other with indefatigable in- 

 dustry, in rolling these globular pellets to the place where they are 

 to be buried This they perform with the tail foremost, by raising 

 up their hinder part, and shoving along' the ball with their hind- 

 feot. 



