THE COMMON COCKCHAFFER. 377 
carry down a bubble of air on the tip of the abdomen, and when the supply is exhausted rise 
for more. 
Passing- by several large and interesting families, we come to curious creatures, popularly 
known by the name of Rove Beetles, or Cocktails, the latter name being given to them on 
account of their habit of curling up the abdomen when they are alarmed or irritated. The 
common Black Cocktail has, when it assumes this attitude, standing its ground defiantly 
with open jaws and elevated tail, so diabolical an aspect that the rustics generally call it the 
devil’s coacli-horse. It has, moreover, the power of throwing out a most disgusting odor, which 
is penetrating and persistent to a degree, refusing to be driven off even with many washings. 
These beetles are termed Staphylinidae, or Brachelytra, the latter term signifying short 
elytra. 
Two species, scientifically termed Ocypus olens and Creophilus maxillosus , are common 
throughout Europe. The latter is plentiful in and about drains or dead animal matter, and 
may be known by the gray hairy look of the elytra. There is a smaller species ( Ftaphylinus 
erythropterus) which has the elytra of a dusky red, and is not so common as the preceding 
insect. I have often remarked that the red-backed shrike is very fond of this insect, and 
used to find the nests of the shrike by means of the beetles that the bird had stuck upon the 
thorns near its home. 
The Staphylinidae include a vast number of species that may be found in almost every 
imaginable locality, and live on almost every imaginable kind of food. 
The 8 'taphylinidce, or Rove Beetles, are extremely common in the United States, and 
useful as scavengers. The Historidoe and several other families include the common Dung or 
Carrion Beetles. NecropTiorus is a very common form. 
Next to the Staphylinidae are placed some insects that have become quite famous for 
their curious and valuable habits. These are the Necrophagse, popularly and appropriately 
termed Burying Beetles. 
It is owing to the exertions of these little scavengers that the carcases of birds, small 
mammals, and reptiles are never seen to cumber the ground, being buried at a depth of several 
inches, where they serve to increase the fertility of the earth instead of tainting the purity of 
the atmosphere. These beetles may easily be captured by laying a dead mouse, mole, bird, 
frog, or even a piece of meat on the ground, and marking the spot so as to be able to find the 
place where it had been laid. It will hardly have remained there for a couple of hours before 
some Burying Beetle will have found it out, and straightway set to work at its interment. 
The plan adopted is by burrowing underneath the corpse and scratching away the earth so as 
to form a hollow, into which the body sinks. When the beetles have worked for some time 
they are quite hidden, and the dead animal seems to subside into the ground as if by magic. 
The object of burying dead animals is to gain a proper spot wherein to deposit their eggs, 
as the larvae when hatched feed wholly on decaying animal substance. 
In the accompanying full-page illustration many figures are given of the Burying Beetles, 
showing them while in the act of interring a dead bird. 
We now come to the Lamellicorn beetles, so called from the beautiful plates, or lamellae, 
which decorate the antennae. This family includes a vast number of species, many of which, 
as, for example, the Common Cockchaffer, are extremely hurtful to vegetation both in the 
larval and adult form. In this family are found the most gigantic specimens of the Coleoptera, 
some of which look more like crabs than beetles, so huge are they and so bizarre are their 
shapes. In all these creatures the lamellae are larger and more beautiful in the female than in 
the male insect. 
The Common Cockchaffer is too familiar to need any description of its personal appear- 
ance, but the history of its life is not so widely known as its aspect. The mother beetle 
commences operations by depositing the eggs in the ground, where in good time the young are 
hatched. The grubs are unsightly-looking objects, having the end of the body so curved that 
Vol. m.— 48. 
