i6a Nature's Scavengers . [April, 
expedl that all the Silphidae would bury, whenever, at least, 
they met with a carcase of suitable magnitude and in a 
fitting locality ? If, therefore, we accept the point of view 
of the old natural history, we are forced to admit that an 
instindt which would have been beneficial both to these in- 
sedts and to the world at large has been inexplicably with- 
held from them. Beneficial, we say, to the insedts themselves, 
because larvae in a piece of buried carrion are — all things 
considered — safer and more likely to reach maturity than if 
the carrion had been allowed to remain on the surface of 
the earth. In this latter case the larvae are exceedingly 
liable to be picked out and consumed by birds, or the whole 
piece of carrion may at any moment be devoured by some 
passing dog, wolf, or hyaena. Beneficial, also, to the world 
at large — for if the burial of offensive matter secures the air 
from taint, it is surely important that all such matter should 
be buried, and not merely a small part. 
We cannot especially examine the families of Sphaeridi- 
idae, Histeridae, and the vast group of Brachelytra, rove- 
beetles or “ devil’s coach-horses,” containing nearly 800 
British species. All these derive a part, at least, of their 
support from decaying animal and vegetable matter, and 
.may be considered as good scavengers of the second rank — 
i.e., devourers of filth which do not disseminate pollution. 
But we must turn to a more remarkable and interesting 
tribe of scavengers, the Saprophagous Lamellicornes of 
MacLeay, of which the common dung-beetle may be taken 
as the type. 
If the reader, when taking a stroll in the fields during the 
spring or early summer, turns over with his stick a deposit 
of horse- or cow-dung, he will — except accustomed to ento- 
mological explorations — be astonished at the number and 
variety of living beings presented to his view. If the dung 
lies upon soft ground, and is neither too recent nor too old 
and dried up, he may often find beetles of a dozen or more 
species, all making arrangements for keeping up the circula- 
tion of matter. Whilst the dung itself is tenanted by 
Staphylini, Histers , Sphcendicz, and their maggots, in the 
ground beneath he will generally see several round holes, 
varying from a few lines to nearly an inch in diameter, 
and extending a considerable depth into the ground.* 
* The burrows of Typluzus vulgaris, the three-horned dung-beetle, are bored 
exceedingly neatly. I cannot help suspedting that, after ground has once been 
broken, the three thoracic horns of this species — which all point forwards, and 
are nearly parallel to each other — play a part in the operation. They are, 
indeed, much less developed in the female than in the male, but the male is so 
frequently found in the shaft that it seems but reasonable to suppose that he 
takes a share in the work of excavating. 
