1876.] Nature's Scavengers. 163 
Down these he will often see beetles quietly escaping. 
These holes are the burrows of different species of dung- 
beetle, into which they convey a quantity of excrement, and 
in it deposit their eggs. Here, again, as in the case of the 
sexton-beetle, is perfect scavenging. A large part of the 
dung — more than is merely required for the wants of the 
young grub — is carried down into the earth, where also the 
excrements of the maggot are retained and disinfected. In 
one single patch of dung, therefore, we may find examples 
both of perfeCt and of very imperfeCt scavenging ; the former 
affeCted by different species of Geotrupes, Aphodius, Typhceus , 
&c., as just described, and the latter by Staphylini, 
Histeridae, &c., which merely devour the dung where it lies, 
without carrying it down into the soil. Here then, again, 
the question may be asked — If to bury putrid matters be an 
instinCt specially implanted in, e.g., the Geotrupidae, in order 
to preserve the atmosphere from taint, why has it not been 
extended to all the dung-feeding species ? Even among 
those which do bury excrementitious matters we find many 
gradations in their mode of working. The Geotrupes and 
their near allies, in Britain and Central Europe, as we have 
seen, excavate a shaft direCtly under the dung, and carry 
down as much as they think requisite. The species of 
Ateuchus — the sacred beetle of the Egyptians — make up a 
ball of dung, in which they enclose an egg, and push or roll 
it along to a hole which they have either dug or selected 
with some little adaptation. P achy soma cesculapius does not 
make up a ball, but deposits its egg in a hole, to which it 
brings dried dung in pieces. Coprobius volvens — the “tumble- 
dung” of North America — is a ball-roller. But among the 
Coprobii of Brazil one alone ( Coprobius carbonarius) buries 
dung. These facts, if fairly weighed, seem to show that the 
practice of burying filth is not a primordial instinCt, but has 
been acquired in the course of successive generations, and 
has taken various developments in various groups. We find, 
also, among these dung-buriers, some species which agree 
completely in their food and in their habits with the Necro - 
phori. Whilst the other members of the great and splendid 
South- American genus Phanceus burrow under dung pre- 
cisely like our British Geotrupes, Phanceus melon mines under 
dead fish, and P. nigro-violaceus and sulcatus — according to 
Prof. Westwood — dig holes beneath dead serpents, and bury 
them in a few hours. 
We have next to point out an important shortcoming in 
the dung-eating, and even in the dung-burying, beetles. 
What the latter class undertake is done to perfection, but 
x 3 
