126 
GODBOLn's. 
have been known by the name of Godbold's : before that 
great era in the affairs of men, when it pleased my mother 
to clothe me in the noble garb before alluded to, it was de- 
nominated Oglethorpe's. On these subjects, bursting, as 
they seem to be, with all those factella, or little facts, 
which make a story pleasant, I must be silent for the pre- 
sent; the only object I now have in mentioning Godbold's, 
is to say that it was there I watched the manoeuvres of the 
Burying-Beetle. Waring Kidd had shot a bulfinch, 
but it was spoiled for stuffing, and thrown down as useless 
by the side of the path just by the bath. It was on this 
bulfinch, and in this situation, that I had the pleasure of 
seeing the burying-beetle at work. 
Two days after, I was again in Godbold's ; and seeing 
the bulfinch lie where he had been left, I lifted him up by 
a leg, intending to make a present of him to a fine colony 
of ants established a little further on in the days of Gene- 
ral Oglethorpe, and which had maintained their station 
ever since. They had made many a pretty skeleton for 
me, and I intended to add that of a bulfinch to the store, 
but the buzz of a beetle round my head caught my ear ; 
he flew smack against the bulfinch which I was holding 
up by the leg, and fell at my feet. I knew that the gen- 
tleman was a burying-beetle, and as I put the bird down 
for him, he soon found it, mounted upon it, and, after 
much examination, opened out his wing-cases, and flew 
away. I will profit by his absence, to tell you a bit of his 
history. 
The burying-beetle is about an inch in length ; he is 
black, with two bands across his back of a bright orange 
colour ; these bands are formed by two blotches of that 
colour on each of the wing-cases : he is a disgusting crea- 
