132 A Few Words about Scavengers. [ March, 
uine scavengers. With their long noses they turn up the bot- 
toms of the streams and feed upon such organic materials as 
they chance to find, using perhaps the flexible feelers beneath 
the snout to search out the exact location and nature of the 
food. 
The Catostomi, or “suckers,” are essentially scavengers, al- 
though devouring also the weaker kinds of living animals. The 
same is true of the horn-pout and other species of cat-fish. 
If we pass from the vertebrates to the articulates, we shall 
here find scavengers in every class. Among the insects, we may 
notice first the flies, some species of which are present to lay 
their eggs or deposit their larvæ in every animal as soon as it is 
dead. And how vast is the work which these little animals 
accomplish in transforming noxious substances into their own 
tissues. A single fly by means of her progeny can probably 
devour an ox quicker than can a hyena! 
Mosquitoes in their larval state are also among the most im- 
portant scavengers. They feed on the decaying organic sub- 
stances which abound in the stagnant waters everywhere, and 
thus they help to remove the fruitful sources of malaria. There- 
fore we may put this fact down to their credit when we lie 
awake in the summer night, defending ourselves against the at- 
tacks of these pests in their adult state. 
How many of the eighty or one hundred thousand species 
of beetles are scavengers, we may perhaps never know. But 
that there are many beetle scavengers we well know ; and all 
are aware how constantly the common carrion beetles (Silpha, 
Figure 20) are engaged in the work so important to the higher 
a ae animals and to man. No sooner is a dead ani- 
mal thrown upon the ground and decay begins, 
than these beetles commence their work of render- 
ing it harmless. Some species of carrion beetles 
have the habit of burying all the small animals 
which they find,—and they find out with as- 
(Fre. 20.) tonishing quickness where such animals are. 
CARRION BEETLE They bury animals by constantly digging be- 
neath them ; and when they have sunk them into the ground, out 
of sight, the females lay their eggs in them, so that when the 
young hatch they find themselves in the midst of suitable food. 
Among the Myriapods there are also some species which are 
scavengers. This is true of the well-known galley-worm (Iulus) 
found under rubbish and which quickly coils up when disturbed. 
